Scale-down dare!

In these hard times where the government do not hand out as much as we would like to see in the libraries it may be better to take a close look at how you manage your collection!
Say a library system has a main branch with 3 larger branches and 3 smaller ones.
You can no longer have all the magazines that you want, but may only have them at the larger branches. You may want to add some more electronic magazines, preferably team up with the local community college, and share the expenses, that way you get most for your bucks. Perhaps add some dumb terminals only to handle the electronic newspapers/magazines. Depending on how many terminals divide the opening hours up so that you have at least 3-4 terminals at the bigger branches and give 1/2 hour slots.

Best sellers and other deemed necessary books/cds/dvds and other media should be at all branches, but should one really have that many copies of say James Patterson. After a mere 3-4 months the interest has dropped drastically and you now have an overflow of duds. I know that some libraries "rent" from book companies and maybe a larger percentage should be allocated to these "rentals".
If not then maybe the customers need to wait a little bit. Or, horror of all horror
maybe we need to explore the electronic books more.

Non-fiction books and materials should be of the categories,
1. what all branches should have, popular of a loose kind
2. at the central and at the bigger branches - more specialized non fiction
3. each branch should be designated a certain specialty, say foreign fiction and nonfiction, depending on the population around the branch
4. the Central Branch should be the one with the deepest possible collection
and the other branches should be designated as specialty branches, meaning the the East branch has science, nature, biography, plus magazines in their field
West branch has religion politics, education,plus magazines in their field
North branch has art, science, travel, plus magazines in their field
the smaller branches could be allocated some kind of sub specialty if needed depending upon where the branch is, (thinking of a local museum, township, historic marker)

That way you could get more bang for your buck, and even add more titles to your collection and add depth. Granted, patrons have to wait a little longer, and the reserves list will be much larger, so you have to weigh the pro and cons.

Why not ask the the customers, after all if you would put it out there, I am not sure that the customers would not be after more titles, even though it meant waiting longer!