Destin Library looks to the east

 
For some east Destin residents, driving across town to visit the library is too long a trip, Library Director Jurate Burns says.
“We’re so far at the west end of town,” Burns told The Log, “we’re not getting enough people from the east end coming to our programs. What we want to do this year is schedule some of our programs at the east end.”
Burns said if the library can find a location willing to take them — a clubhouse in one of the Crystal Beach subdivisions, for example — they could schedule events there “when we have a program we think will hold a good crowd ... It’s kind of an outreach service.”
The library’s programs include computer classes, story time for toddlers, tai chi sessions a monthly film night, and guest lecturers on art or history. In the 2007/8 fiscal year, library programs drew 3,345 attendees.
“We haven’t determined what it is we’re going to do away from this facility,” Burns added.
In 1999, the city proposed a different solution: Opening a Crystal Beach branch by 2009. Burns told The Log last year that she’d received a lot of requests from Crystal Beach for a branch, and hoped to lease a storefront or commercial property for that purpose.
“Retail commercial rents are very expensive,” Burns said in 2007, “but the best place for a branch library is in a shopping center ... Many, many cities have done that and it’s proved mutually beneficial.”
Burns has said that a good branch library would have several Internet computers, a small collection of fiction, and children’s books. If patrons requested books housed in the main collection on Sibert Ave., they could be shuttled out a couple of times a day.

This week, Burns said that with the city’s budget so tight, scheduling occasional events made more sense than opening a branch: “It would cost money, whether it was a rented facility or not.”

WANT TO HELP?
Do you have space to host a Destin Library program? Contact Jurate Burns at (850) 837-8572.

BY THE NUMBERS
At the end of fiscal year 2008, on Sept. 30, the library had:
•16,084 cardholders.
•43,945 items
•Cardholders visited the library 79,398 times and checked out 75,477 items. They used the public computers 25,104 times.