The economic downturn has affected everyone — from individuals to the federal government.

The Union County Carnegie Library was not insulated from its effects.

The facts — decreased funding, less public hours, smaller staff and increase in demand — paint a picture of dire straits for South Carolina’s first Carnegie Library, constructed more than 100 years ago, but there is a light shining in the darkness.

The library’s staff is committed to its success and passionate about their work — the work of people who are servants to the nearly 2,000 people they see coming through the building’s doors every week.

And now they’re asking for help.

It’s help the library desperately needs to continue offering more than just books to the people of Union County.

The Situation

The Union County community is using the library with people standing at the doors waiting for it to open and it seems they want to use it more and more.

“Union loves its library,” said Union County Carnegie Library Board of Trustees Chairperson Jenny Alexander as library interim director Bev Weed agreed. “People really are passionate about what we do.”

The library sees — on average — about 1,800 people each week.

Unfortunately, according to Alexander, more than 150 rural libraries close each year across the United States and the Union facility could be teetering on the brink as demand for services and use continue to increase while the library’s budget has remained stagnant since 2001.

Union County Carnegie Library is facing a fiscal year in 2010-11 with even less as funding looks to decrease which is forcing the board and library staff to take a critical look at what the library offers.

“If there isn’t more funding, the services are going to have to be cut eventually,” Alexander said.

The library is working with a minimal staff already forced to take furloughs in the last year and working for less. Its hours also have been slashed from 54 to 44 each week.

Maintaining the level of services the community has come to expect and appreciate at the library while maintaining the building and its grounds in such constrained budget confines has taken the efforts of everyone involved, from board members to staff to the Friends of the Union County Carnegie Library group.

“It’s a balancing act,” Alexander said.

A Glimmer of Hope

Union County Carnegie Library has something every business or industry wants — a staff, albeit smaller now than in the past, committed to its success.

While the board of trustees diligently continues its search for a new library director since Nancy Rosenwald left to work in Columbia, the library staff knows what the library is facing but at the same time knows the people they serve. They all are dedicated to maintaining the level of services the library offers and constantly looking at ways to grow.

Take Bernice Bryson, the library’s genealogy and reference librarian, for example.

The traffic in her area of expertise has picked up in recent years, with people from all over coming in or calling her to find information.

“We have visitors from all over the country and internationally,” Alexander said.

“And they call, too,” the interim director added.

Bryson — instead of turning patrons away — goes out of her way to find information they need or help them find it on their own no matter how long it takes and it’s all free of charge.

Rob Peake is another example of how the library’s staff is working to not only maintain current services but add more and up the customer service experience.

Peake is in charge of the library’s book mobile that can be seen in communities around Union County. The interim director and Alexander said the mobile librarian’s passion to help his customers find what they need goes above and beyond what is expected. He works hard stocking the book mobile for each community he visits. Peake also will put books on hold for people and take the extra step to help readers out in whatever ways he can.

The point is, all of the library’s employees are just as dedicated to their patrons as the other and that will not change no matter how many budget cuts or slashes in hours happen.

“The staff is phenomenal and they do it because they love it,” Alexander said. “They’re passionate for what they do.”

Poised for Growth

“The demand has increased,” Bev said.

It’s apparent in not only the number of people the library sees in a week but also by the number of services it provides, including online book checkout and search resources and children and teen services — as many as 30 or more children and teens can be found at the library every afternoon.

Helping with that demand has been several grant awards in the last few years — the most recent from the Timken Foundation that will be used to update the adult area and create a teen-specific area in the library.

So Union County Carnegie Library is poised for growth, especially with hard economic times.

Alexander and the interim director said the library has become somewhat of a job resource center. Bev added a good portion of the adult traffic in and out of the facility every day are those using the Internet to search for jobs, type resumes and fill out job applications online.

The library also offered tax forms and U.S. Census help in recent months.

Union County Carnegie Library has gone through somewhat of a transformation in the last several years because of the work Rosenwald — the former library director — did in making it more available to the public and informing the community on everything the library has to offer. Prior to that, according to Alexander, the library was a completely different place — quiet and not used by many.

The increased demand is also a sign of the change in how people view their local library. Alexander said it no longer is a place to be quiet and simply read and check out books.

“Libraries have changed with the times,” she said.

Part of that progress has been the increased use of technology and additional services people have come to expect and need from the library. Union County’s library is on the brink of taking that growth and running, it simply doesn’t have the funding to do so.

But it’s not giving up.

Looking To The Future

“We’re not giving up on our vision,” Alexander said.

To reach its goals, however, the board and library staff are asking for the community’s help.

Letters are being sent to the residents and businesses of Union County to raise the funds needed to cover the funding shortfall the library is expected to experience in fiscal year 2010-11. Efforts also have been made by Alexander and her fellow board members to work with the county to fund the library and the interim director said Union County Supervisor Tommy Sinclair — a staunch supporter of the library — is trying to find every way possible to help the library in its time of need.

But the more people who help the more the library can do.

“That’s what the community wants,” Alexander said.

Community support — not just demand for services — is something the library can’t survive without.

“We need more community support to take us into the future,” Alexander said. “The more people who can give, the more services we can have.”

Along with that community support and a more active role from Union County residents, the board is working on finding a strong leader in the next library director that will help move it in the right direction.

“We really need a forward thinking, strong leader,” Alexander said. “We need someone who can think for the future and take it to the next level.”

She and the interim director agreed Rosenwald did a fantastic job getting the library to where it is today, but it’s now time for someone to lead the library into the future and help strengthen its role as not only a library but a community center in Union County.

“We are ready for that next person to take us to the next level,” Alexander said.

A strong leader in the next library director combined with a community that can rally behind and support it are what’s needed to sustain Union County Carnegie Library.

It’s more than just a book repository and Internet access hub.

The building nestled in the heart of historic downtown Union is making itself available to everyone and hopes its community will back it now and for years to come.

After all, there’s something for everybody at the library.

DID YOU KNOW:

The Union County Carnegie Library:

• Shut down for four weeks due to insufficient funds this fiscal year.

• Slashed hours from 54 to 44 per week due to insufficient funds this fiscal year.

• Has effective operating hours of 63 hours per week

• Serves on average 1,800 per week.

• Drastically reduced the purchasing of books in the 2008-09 fiscal year due to insufficient funds. Summer Reading was financed from Friends of the Library and corporate donations.

• Has had no funding increase since 2001 yet the usage has dramatically increased and the cost of doing business continues to rise.

Information from Union County Carnegie Library Board of Trustees Chairperson Jenny Alexander.