Over the past year the Lincoln County Public Library has mademany changes to improve the efficiency of its services.

The improvements were among topics discussed as libraryofficials presented an activities report and proposed budgetrequest during Thursday’s board of aldermen meeting.

Library officials reported a new system was set into place thatconnects 13 libraries in the area through computer automation.

Now, library patrons can check fines owed, due dates and bookavailability online, said Russell Burns, chairman of the LincolnCounty Public Library board of trustees.

The new system provides pictures of book covers, book summariesand reviews for books in the 13-library system.

“The catalog accessibility is our big factor. You can go to ourWeb site and see what books we have and what books 13 libraries inthe system have available,” said Lincoln County Public LibraryDirector Henry Ledet. “One of the great things is it is making iteasier for us to cooperate with the other libraries in the area andwe can work together.”

Library officials presented aldermen with a new year budgetrequest of $98,000, which is a $3,000 increase from last yearsrequest. Aldermen took the request under advisement.

In other activity, the library’s summer reading program hascontinued to grow, with over 100 children participating. It becamenecessary, because of the number attending, to separateparticipants into age groups, Burns said.

“We are real excited about what is going in in our children’sdepartment,” Ledet said. “The great thing is we have teenaged kidsvolunteering. It’s been great for the children and theprogram.”

Another new service being offered is free morning coffee.

“Anyone is invited to have a cup of coffee and read the out oftown newspapers and magazines,” Ledet said.

Library officials are excited about the completion of the JohnWilliams photography collection, which includes over 100,000photos.

The project is in the final stages of preparation, Ledet said.State Bank donated the collection to the library and a federalgrant paid for the organization of the collection.