At the May 16 meeting of the Okanagan Regional Library’s Board of Trustees, the Board was presented with a clean audit from BDO Canada for the 2011 fiscal year. They received and approved the financial statements for 2011. Consolidated statements showed total revenue of $15.9 million and expenditures of $14.6 million. The Library’s current fund surplus of $131,652 reduces the accumulated deficit from previous years to $153,889.

The Executive Summary for 2011 was also reviewed, which includes highlights and achievements during the year. Most notably, the ORL continued to see increased use and activity at branches and online:

–                      a 1% increase in overall circulation of materials; 3.388 million items were circulated in 2011 compared to 3.354 million in 2010

–                      program attendance at storytimes, events and visits at the 29 branches totalled 90,773 vs 89,125 in 2010

–                      hits on the ORL homepage reached 1.68 million, an 8.9% increase over 2010

–                      the feature film collection saw a 43% increase in use, and the number of eBooks and eAudiobooks downloaded from the ORL increased 151%

The types of materials that saw large decreases in usage were the videotape collection (which was retired at the end of the year) and taped books.

Three proposals from the Policy and Planning Committee were passed:

–                      A slight revision to the ORL’s definition of “core services” which now includes 24/7 access to the library’s digital collection

–                      Moving forward with a feasibility study to investigate options for the ORL to pursue fundraising

–                      Moving to a 3-year planning process for the budget

The Board was informed about the loss of $87,000 in federal funding from the Community Access Program (CAP) and agreed to send a letter to officials asking for the reinstatement of funding that allows the ORL to provide free computer and Internet access in branches.