Skyrocketing use of the public library has failed to keep South Portland City Manager Jim Gailey from proposing another round of cuts at the main branch for next fiscal year.

Under the spending plan Gailey presented to the City Council, the library budget would decrease from $616,000 to $575,000, largely from staff cuts made in February.

The city manager’s budget for 2009-10 calls for an increase in the library director’s salary from $64,000 to $67,000.

Also, rank-and-file hourly workers may be in line for a cost-of-living raise in July, when the new fiscal year starts. But the city is in contract talks and fact-finding with the union that represents many of the workers.

On Wednesday, Gailey was scheduled to introduce an $80.3 million budget for next fiscal year during a special council meeting and public hearing at City Hall.

The main library’s budget and use have come into sharp focus this week, as residents protest the layoffs of veteran municipal employees and the closing of the Young Adult Resource Room.

South Portland residents rallied in the rain Monday night for city leaders to restore a total of five laid-off municipal workers, including two library workers, and also reopen the resource room, which served teenagers.

Although members of the public noted that more people are using the library in tight fiscal times, demand for South Portland’s library services has been rising at a fast pace for at least a decade.

The introduction of a computer system called Minerva has resulted in a quantum leap in the number of materials circulated at the main library.

From 1996-2008, the number of books and other items sent out from the main library using the Minerva system increased by a whopping 7,228 percent – from 367 to 26,893.

But that represents just a fraction of the books and materials circulated through the main library. More than 173,000 books were checked out in 2008, up from 152,898 in 2006.

The Minerva system taps collections beyond South Portland. Members include public libraries and colleges throughout Maine that share books and other materials for the public to borrow.

People can go online – or ask their librarian – to check to see if a book is available at participating libraries in Maine.

Requested books, DVDs and other materials are sent from their home libraries and processed by the librarians in South Portland and other participating libraries before they are checked out and picked up by patrons.

Instead of being limited by the collection at the South Portland Library, residents in this city of 23,000 can tap the collections of several libraries across Maine.

Use of the Minerva system has only accelerated as it has become better known. Meanwhile, the number of staff at the library has gone down.

Five full-time employees and four part-timers work at the main branch, a drop from 2006.

One full-time worker who processed book orders was not replaced after he retired three years ago. In 2009, part-time library clerk Monica Dubay and a full-time librarian, Reta Nappi, lost their jobs in layoffs, and the city does not plan to replace them.

Meanwhile, the number of visitors to the main library is on the rise, as more people who are unemployed show up for the computers and periodicals.

The South Portland library is hardly alone. Libraries across the nation are reporting huge increases in patrons, from homeless people to members of the public looking for free and low-cost ways to spend free time.

In South Portland, the library staff reports that the main branch is particularly busy on Mondays, because the Portland library’s main branch is closed.

Librarians say that people who are transient find a warm and hospitable place to sit, while job seekers use the resources to look for work.

The demand for library services also comes at a time of dire cuts in many city services as revenues fall.

The city is about to embark on budget talks with five unions this spring, including with library workers, who organized three years ago.

“I have not approached the union based on the negotiations are still on-going and we are heading into fact finding,” Gailey said. “We are also negotiating for the first time with a combined dispatch union (with Portland) and a new bus drivers union.”

Revenues are down as well. Excise tax revenues and state revenue sharing have declined.

Excise tax revenues are projected to stay flat, with the number of new vehicle registrations down. The City Manager is projecting $4.3 million in excise tax revenues, down from $4.4 million this fiscal year.

The city has budgeted $2 million from state revenue, which is flat funding from this fiscal year.