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Library hours expansion on the table

Kile Brewer
Posted 8/16/17

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Clay County Board of County Commissioners held a workshop on the county’s library system last week, where the conversation was focused on normalizing library hours and …

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Library hours expansion on the table


Posted

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Clay County Board of County Commissioners held a workshop on the county’s library system last week, where the conversation was focused on normalizing library hours and the potential for a new regional library near the Oakleaf community.

At the beginning of the meeting, commissioners heard testimony from several members of the various libraries’ Friends of the Library groups, as well as members of the system’s advisory board. Each member of the public brought a unique perspective from different parts of the county, but what each speaker asked for carried across the group – restored hours, or, at least, hours that can easily be memorized by library patrons.

“Ideally, you will agree with the statement that ‘more library equals more learning’,” said Sandy Coffey, a member of the library system’s board of trustees, during the meeting’s public comment section. Coffey read a prepared statement that announced the library’s Board of Trustees’ support for restored library hours.

Library hours were changed in 2009 after continued cutbacks in funding for the system left them with nothing else to do but cut staff and hours, maintain the minimum amount of employees needed to operate one shift at each branch every day, and have staggered hours at the branches to offer both morning and evening programming at a nearby library.

Coffey also pointed to a recent online survey conducted across the system’s membership. In the survey, of the almost 900 people who participated, the most frequent request was to restore the library hours.

Currently, the libraries in Keystone Heights, Middleburg and Orange Park operate on the same hours, Monday and Wednesday from 10-6, and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12-8. The Fleming Island and Green Cove Springs libraries operate opposite that schedule, and all libraries are open Friday and Saturday from 9-5. With the staggered schedule, many patrons have shown up to their local library expecting it to be open, only to find locked doors and a potential two-hour wait in the parking lot.

Pat Coffman, the director of the county’s library system, presented the bulk of the information and budget requests to the board following public comment. Her presentation focused on the disjointed library hours too, and offered ways to correct the problem.

“We were asked about increasing hours, and we looked at three options,” Coffman said, explaining later that through restoring hours they could potentially double the use of their libraries by offering morning and evening hours at all branches.

Coffman presented the commissioners with options for restoring the hours to their pre-2009 schedule, with all branches operating Monday through Thursday from 10-8 p.m., and moving to a 10-5 p.m. schedule on Fridays and Saturdays. A third option was also discussed, but this option would only add one employee and keep the current hours, with the exception of the headquarters library in Fleming Island which would add about eight hours to their open times through that one employee.

The first option would add 12 full-time employees, and add a number of classes and literacy programs, which seem to be the most popular library programs, according to participation numbers and surveys. This option would cost the county about $551,000 of their ad valorem dollars, as commissioner Diane Hutchings pointed out, this is the fund used to pay salaries. The second option would only add 8 employees, and cost about $376,000, while still bringing back the old hours. However, this staff would be considered minimal, and would not allow the system to increase literacy and classroom-based programming.

Despite these options, the commissioners asked for more information, and seemed to lean toward filling in any additional hours through more intensive recruitment of volunteers and the addition of more volunteer hours while keeping staff the same as it is now. They asked for Coffman and county staff to return with a proposal that might not restore the hours, but would at least normalize the current schedules while keeping a “bare bones” staff.

The board seemed more interested in using capital funds from the sales tax increase to move forward on a new regional library to service Middleburg and Oakleaf. The library would potentially house other county offices like the tax collector and a potential hub for the sheriff’s office.

“Before we start expanding hours in other parts of the county, I’d like to see the level of service more equal throughout the county,” Hutchings said in support of adding the Oakleaf library before making any other changes.

BCC chair Wayne Bolla continued to voice support for a public-private partnership at the new library that would include a Starbucks store. Gavin Rollins even offered the idea that the board could partner with a developer to defray some of the costs to allow the developer to create commercial storefronts in the new building. Rollins’ opinion is that this would help enforce the idea that this isn’t just a library, but rather a safe gathering place for people in that part of the county with shops, restaurants and a coffee shop.

“In an increasingly high-tech world we’ve lost those community gathering places,” Rollins said. “That’s what libraries allow, they’re an access place for the community.”

One thing that Coffman mentioned which was met with enthusiasm from all board members was the advent of self-check and RFID technology throughout the library system. Placing RFID tags on each book would free up library staff and allow patrons to use their library cards and new kiosks to check out books themselves, freeing up library staff to assist customers or do other jobs around the library instead of spending their day behind a desk. The change would cost about $300,000 to update every library.

“I personally think that, anything you can take the human touch out of you’ve lowered your cost substantially,” Hutchings said. “And you’ve also made it much friendlier to the folks who are trying to get in and out.”

Coffman also provided the board with a list of minor changes to library policy, as well as some monetary changes that would allow for cost-savings and potential revenue increases. These changes included charging any individual or for-profit organization for meeting rooms, charging for proctored exams, increasing fines, as well as purchasing books and office supplies from Amazon.com instead of through regular channels. These changes will be brought back to the commission for an official vote.