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The Lawrence Public Library is looking a little busier than it did last year, and all the years before, for that matter. On any given day, a person can walk through the front doors into an atmosphere of rustling pages, clacking computer keys and rambunctious children. These sounds are becoming ever more prominent as of late.

Both in Lawrence and nationwide, people seem to be re-discovering the value of their local public libraries. Numbers in all areas of usage are increasing, from the number of library visitors to the amount of materials being checked out. This significant increase parallels the decreasing state of the economy. All the while, libraries are trying to support themselves, as well as their patrons.


Over the past several years, the Lawrence library has noticed its numbers climbing. Its number of user visits increased by about 100,000 in 2007as compared to 2000. The total annual circulation almost doubled in that time span, with audio-video materials being the most popular. Their check-out frequency spiked by 10-15% each year. Program attendance skyrocketed, also doubling during this timeframe.



Numbers are even rising monthly this year. For example, while there were 42,194 library visits in January, there were 52,924 in June. Similarly, 112,990 materials were checked out in January, which increased to 131,168 in June. As for the cause of all this:

"I think the recession is a huge factor," Bruce Flanders, LPL director, said.
 
"People are just trying to economize," Sherri Turner, LPL assistant director, agreed. "People are realizing that they can get their entertainment materials free here."

Rebecca Smith, director of communications at Watson Library, offered another perspective. Building off of the recession backdrop, she thought the recent library increases might be another example of the so-called "Lipstick Index." This phenomenon was so named when economists noted that during times of recession, the number of women buying lipstick increased. The basis of this notion was that when times got harder, people looked for small reasons to be happy.

"People are looking for an escape," Smith said. "So they turn to books and movies."



There is one downside to all of the increased traffic to libraries, and that is the fact that the libraries themselves are not exempt from the recession. Across the nation, libraries are shutting down, unable to finance the services that people expect from them.

More locally, the Topeka public library recently had to cut its staff and, despite a relatively large budget, found itself struggling. Lawrence Public Library maintained itself well, actually getting an extra $9,000 added to its $3 million budget for 2010. However, this increase is coming from another budget that is usually reserved for capital improvements. Flanders also predicted a possible budget cut in 2011.

"Going back decades, public libraries have observed that when the economy goes down, the usage goes up," Flanders said. "The paradox is that the libraries are under pressure too."

As library usage grows, so does the need for more services. Lawrence Public Library director Bruce Flanders talks a bit about the projects that the library is taking on.

It is Friday morning, and she is ready to read. Tucked into the small recording room, she checks the mic, adjusts her chair. Today's book splays in front of her, this one a tale of a Long Island boy pining after the local coffee shop girl. She clears her throat and begins her introduction: "Hello, this is Eleanor Symons..."

Symons is just one of a couple hundred volunteer readers at the Baehr Audio-Reader center who donate their time and their voices. She has the unique distinction of volunteering the longest, though - 38 years, to be exact. She was with the program at its birth and has stuck with it as it has grown over the decades.

"I enjoy reading," she said. "I always have."

Audio-Reader is a radio reading service for blind people, or anyone else with a visual impairment that inhibits their print-reading abilities. It is the second of its kind in the nation, and its services are free to its over 5,000 registered listeners. A handful of University-paid staff runs the program, while a multitude of volunteers do the reading, keeping listeners entertained with everything from local news to poetry to movie reviews. They also cover the less glamorous material, like grocery ads and obituaries.

"There was one time where I read 100 obituaries in three hours," Symons said. "I wondered if there were any living people around."

Still, reading is what Symons loves, what she always loved. The English mystery novels she enjoyed as a schoolgirl are still her favorites.

"They keep a British accent going," she said.

This accent is a remnant of Symons' years in England. She grew up in Camborne, Cornwell, and attended the local primary and secondary schools there. She noted how much more reading students did there than in the states.

After graduating from the University of London Library School, she worked happily in area libraries for nine years. This changed one September day in 1957 when she opened the morning paper to the classifieds section. KU, on behalf of Watson Library, put a wanted ad in the British paper for a librarian.

"They just made KU and Lawrence sound so attractive," she said. She quickly applied for the opening, and she, along with a few other international individuals, got the position.

Thus began Symons' life in the U.S., her 37-year-long career at Watson, and her eventual involvement with Audio-Reader.

When the concept for Audio-Reader came about in 1971 and Symons caught wind of it, she felt compelled to get involved.

"I got in at the very start, because it sounded like a good thing," she said. "I didn't have money to donate, but I could read."

And that is what she has done ever since. She religiously goes into Audio-Reader a couple times a week, reading for a few hours at a time. Even when she had to stop driving a few years back, she began taking the bus so she could continue her efforts.

"They treat the volunteers well," Symons said. "We have a summer picnic and a Christmas banquet. There are always coffee and snacks around the common area."

Symons' dedicated years do not go unnoticed. Two years ago, Audio-Reader put her name forward as a candidate for the city's Volunteer of the Year award. She got it.

"I didn't expect to win," she said. "There were a lot of other people [who could have]."

Janet Campbell, Audio-Reader director and one of the people that nominated Symons, saw the winning qualities though.

"It's remarkable," she said. "Longevity aside, she's a terrific reader and ambassador. She has recruited a lot of other volunteers for us."

Campbell said that she has had new volunteers come to her from Symons' church and retirement community. They say that Symons talked up the program, and now they want to get involved as well.

"Her enthusiasm just spills over," Campbell said.

Even when she is not at Audio-Reader, Symons' hobbies still hover around words. She busies herself with crossword puzzles and participates in a weekly writing group. Of late, she writes about childhood memories, something she finds "therapeutic."

Of course, she enjoys a bit of light reading as well.

Alexandra Piatt, KU sophomore, first used the Plan B pill her senior year in high school, after both birth control and condoms proved unreliable. At that time, this pill was only available for women aged 18 and older, so she had a friend go to Walgreens and get it for her. It cost a steep $50.

The pill will be much more accessible and affordable now, thanks to the FDA's recent approval of a generic version. Dubbed "Next Choice," the drug, produced by Watson Pharmaceuticals, will be available over-the-counter to those 17 and older starting August 24^th.

"I'd use the generic form if the situation arose again," Piatt said. "I've used generics my whole life, and they work just the same."

This brand-to-generic turn of the Plan B pill is another instance of a growing trend. Once the patents come off brand name drugs and generics enter the market, consumers must decide between brand loyalty or lower prices. Despite Lawrence's distinction as an affluent city, its residents still join the rest of the nation in their preference for the latter.

 

The popularity of generic drugs started picking up during the last decade, transitioning from the minority to the majority of the type of prescriptions consumers buy. Courtney Brozik, a Lawrence CVS pharmacist, said that the most popular generics are antibiotics, hypertension medication and pain pills.

 

"We may have a wealthier population," Brozik said. "But if people can get things cheaper, then they're going to."

 

While many people think that brand drug companies must lower their prices to compete with generics, sometimes they do the opposite. As Ronald Caldwell, KU economics professor, said, this is because there are always a handful of people that refuse to buy anything other than the brandname drug they are used to taking. They will continue to buy it, no matter how high the price goes. The drug companies count on this and use the fact to get back some of the money that they used in the production of the drug, so that they might have money to start research on a new one.

 

"A lot of it can be in their heads," said Caldwell. "If people think that one drug works better than another - even if they're the same thing - then for them, it will."

 

Most of the time, though, brand drug prices will drop an average of 5 percent once a generic version hits the market, according to the most recent FTC Interim Report.

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As $60 billion of drugs will be coming off patent during  President Obama's first term, the demand for a competitive pharmaceutical market remains. A huge push for more generic subscriptions is a certain part of the pending health care reform, though a review of the FDA standards that regulate generics is not. More generic drug companies are outside the U.S., in countries like India and China, and they do not always adhere to these standards. Dr. Thomas Welty, chair of the KU pharmaceutical practice department, worried about what this could mean for brand companies.

 

"At first glance, drug companies may seem very profitable. But the pharmaceutical industry spends much more money on returning their profit to research than any other industry." Welty said."With a growing push for generic substitution, where does the money come from to fund new pharmaceutical research?"

Director Midge Grinstead's office at the Lawrence Humane Society, 1805 E. 19^th St., is something of a showroom. An assortment of certificates lines the wall, framed photographs lay in stacks on the chair and a first-place trophy reading "The Wieners" shines proudly atop a filing cabinet. Today, though, as she sits teary-eyed with lavender shadow creasing, recounting recent happenings at the shelter, she looks a bit defeated.

"There was the corporate graduate who had lost her job and her home, and now her cat, and then the grown man who started sobbing when he gave his dog up," she says. "One elderly woman who had been living out of her car came in a couple weeks ago with her two cats, 16 and 18 years old. She just couldn't keep them in her hot car anymore, and she had to give them up. But they faded quickly here, and we had to euthanize them within the week."

Stories like these are now becoming more common, thanks to the combined effects of summertime and the recession. More animals are being born, and fewer people are in town to take care of them. Compound this with the current economic state and the increased costs of caring for an animal, and it is clear that pets can feel the recession as much as their owners. Fortunately, there are still plenty of pet owners willing to pay extra to keep their pets part of the family.

Things get hairy

College students leaving for the summer and deciding not to take their pets with them is a yearly, predictable problem. It is the influx of people losing their homes or foreclosing that is mostly to blame for the increase in pet drop-offs. For example, while Grinstead recorded 387 cats being dropped off July of last year, she is expecting as many as 600 this time around. She also said that the characteristics of animals being left are shifting. While it used to be mostly strays, she is now seeing more and more "heavily vetted, spayed or neutered purebreds" being left. When this happens, it is called owner turn-in. Owner turn-in used to be 40 percent at most. Now it has jumped to 79 percent.

"The top reason [for giving up pets] used to be 'I'm moving,'" she said. "Now it's 'I can't afford it.'"

The average annual expenditures made by pet owners. Statistics provided by the 2007-2008 APPA National Pet Owners Survey.

 
Lawrence's pattern of pet ownership follows that of the rest of the country. In a study done last year by the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy, about 7 million cats and dogs were dropped off in shelters. Of these, half were adopted, leaving the other 3.5 million to be euthanized. PetCo, the national leader in pet supplies, saw its profits dip 8.6 percent this year.

Biting into the issue

The good news is that the people who can still afford to keep their animals, and keep them healthy, are. Justin Wipf, assistant manager of the Lawrence PetCo, 3115 Iowa St., said that people who have always been loyal organic food buyers are remaining that way, despite the economics of it. Jeryl Crane, a receptionist at Lawrence Veterinary Hospital, 3210 Clinton Parkway Ct., said that though some people are shying away from the ever-rising costs of prescription diets, the business is still seeing just as many people coming in to take care of their pets' medical needs.

"I'm surprised. When the recession started, I worried about how people would handle choosing between expenses. I thought pets might be the ones taking the backseat," Crane said. "But the people that really care are still taking good care of them."

A breakdown of the $43.2 billion Americans spent on their pets last year. Statistics by the APPA (American Pet Products Association). 

Geoff Gawdun, a Topeka senior working his way through school, is one of these people. In January, he chose to pay the $130 that came with vaccinating, spaying and adopting his Chihuahua/miniature Pinscher mix puppy, Izzie, from the Humane Society.

"She was worth it," Gawdun said.

Warm 'n' fuzzy feelings

Grinstead blinks away her tears and smiles. She is also slowly but surely seeing the devotion of animal lovers come through. To make up for the $58,000 budget deficit the shelter is facing this year, Grinstead turned to the community for support. She got it too. Earlier this year, the Humane Society hosted a donation garage sale that yielded $10,000. It also received a couple $5,000 donations, and Grinstead is working on filling out applications for any available grants.

"That's the great thing about Lawrence," she said. "When we have a need, and we put it out there, it is answered. There are bad things that happen, yes, but there are good things happening every day too. That's what keeps us going. "