At the Douglas County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, August 19, Peg Warner of the Viking Library System presented a request for a small budget increase from Douglas County to go toward library services.
Warner said that the library would ideally have smaller increases on a regular basis rather than seek emergency requests for larger sums. The Viking Library System governing board approved the request for a 2.5 percent increase for 2015 from each of its six county members. This is the same budget increase they received last year.
The request would allow them a $112,182 budget for 2015 compared to the 2014 $109,446 budget. The request is currently in the preliminary basis and will be finalized in January, allowing the dollar amounts to be adjusted during the process.
The Viking Library System offers multiple services that could be increased and improved with a continuously raised budget. These services include the bookmobile, the interlibrary loan, automation dollars, and state funded services such as broadband network, legacy funds and outreach to daycares, Head Start and group homes.
Libraries in the six county system include Douglas County, Browns Valley Public, Elbow Lake Thorson Memorial, Fergus Falls, Glenwood Public, Hancock Community, Morris Public, New York Mills Public, Pelican Rapids Public, Perham Area Public, and Wheaton Community.
