Wisconsin's public library systems are growing, but library directors say their budgets are stagnant at best, and it's difficult to meet the demands of the public.

Library directors in Bloomer and Colfax tell us they've seen lots of growth, particularly in their computer usage, in just the last two years.

When the economy took a tumble a few years ago many small libraries were not prepared for what followed.

“In 2009 we saw an 88 percent jump in computer usage which just blew us away we couldn't believe it, so we ended up buying a couple of extra laptops,” Colfax Public Library Director Lisa Ludwig tells us.

Colfax Public Library tried to compensate for the influx of new computer users, which were often job seekers, by offering classes to aid them.

But Ludwig says the classes meant more work, with just as few dollars as before.

“As far as staff hours and teaching the classes it's been kind of a struggle to figure out how to keep offering these classes even though I can not increase my budget,” she tells us.

And Bloomer Public Library has experienced the same onslaught of new computer users, and the extra demand on it's budget.

“We've had to be very creative with our programming, anything we can do with our programming materials budgets, stretch a dollar, we rely a lot on Interlibrary loans,” Bloomer Public Library Director Kimberly Korbel tells us.

Like most rural libraries, Bloomer shares resources with other libraries to get by, in fact Interlibrary loan traffic has increased by more than 2000 percent in the last decade.

Just another sign that libraries are alive and thriving in the twenty-first century.

“We definitely feel our library is not only a place to come and get books, but also a place for the community to meet,” Korbel says.

Both Colfax and bloomer public libraries belong to the more system, a consortium of nearly 50 area libraries that loan books to one another.