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[This year's December Days are categorized! Specifically: "Things I should have learned in library school, had (I/they) been paying attention. But I can make that out of just about anything you'd like to know about library school or the library profession, so if you have suggestions, I'll happily take them.]
The nice things about a city library system is that everyone who lives in the city gets to access the library - it's already paid for out of all the taxes that a person pays for city services. When you work for a county system, like mine, the county system often funds itself by levying a tax on people who are in the service area, which starts with "unincorporated" parts of the county and then adds on whichever municipalities decide they want to join the system, rather than maintain their own city libraries. County systems are a little more stable in their funding, because they can control their own tax rate, but they don't always have the universal issue guarantees of a city library.
Each library system also gets to set the eligibility criteria for their library system. Which can make it possible that someone won't be able to get a library card for the library system where they work, because they also don't live within the city boundaries, and the rules say that you have to be paying taxes into that system to be able to get a library card from it. Some places, such as Montana and Hawai'i, have adopted the pose that if you are eligible for a library card anywhere in their state, that library card will work at all other libraries in the state - a giant union catalog, essentially, with some standardization of records such that you can pop into any library anywhere and check out or return materials. Our current executive director had just completed one of these statewide projects before joining our organization.
Barring the statewide library card, many library systems forge what we officially call "cooperative use agreements", more colloquially called reciprocal borrowing, where library systems agree that they will issue library cards in their system to members of another library system, based on what eligibility rules the library system lays down. There's generally a financial component to this, where systems will exchange some amount of funding with each other based on the number of people that keep and hold library cards in the reciprocal borrowing areas. This doesn't mean that someone can borrow from one system and return to another, unless they want to rack up whatever overdue fine will accumulate while the materials sit and wait to be sent back to their originating library system, but it does often mean that someone can hold a library card in their primary residence and at their place of work. (With the advent of digital collections and subscriptions, what that often means is that maintaining library cards in a couple of systems gives you broader access to digital than you would otherwise have.)
Failing the cooperative use agreement, where people can get library cards for free from other systems, some library system allow for the purchase of a non-resident card, where a family can pay (often in full, up front) the approximate tax cost of a library card and be able to use a library as if they were a taxpayer. Non-resident cards are often issued one to a family, so as to try and soften the financial blow, but that can mean having to come up with a hundred or more dollars all at once to get your library service for the year. This is the least desirable solution, but it does provide library service i nplaces where there might not be one otherwise.
When I first joined my current system, ten years ago, my branch location was relatively close by to a major metropolitan area that had its own city library system, and near two smaller municipalities that do not subscribe to any library services, either municipally or through annexation to a county system. People in those areas could purchase nonresident cards with the library system at the sum of approximately $120 per year, I believe. Unsurprisingly, this does not make people happy.
When I joined, the location I was in was in the middle of a protracted construction campaign for a new civic building that would house a library, and the site chosen for the new building had been very close to where the old library had been, and the old library had been torn down, with the assumption that the new civic building would be erected in only a few years. I had been hired on to that location with the assumption that within a year or two, the new civic building would be completed and the converted auto parts store location would be a thing of the temporary past. It would take four years before the new building was completed.
However, in the intervening time, the library system managed to hammer out an agreement with the major metropolitan area nearby so that we had cooperative use. This made my job so much easier, as it removed the part of my job where I had to tell residents of that area who were, frankly, closer by to our location than to a branch of the city system. that they couldn't get a free card, but they could pay for a non-rsident card. Yay, reciprocality. Another smaller municipality near the county border finally annexed on a few years later, in exchange for placing a new library branch there, and another couple municipalities near the southern and northern borders of the county also anneded in to library systems, which made it much easier for co-workers stationed near those places, because they no longer had to do fine distinctions of place to determine whether a person was eligible for a library card based on their location. Yay, making it easier for everyone.
The library system also forged (or re-committed to) several other cooperative agreements with other county systems and their major metropolitan areas, to the point where a person who lives on the west side of the state can basically get a library card with most of the county and major city libraries elsewhere in the west side of the state. With those agreements in place, the library system essentially did away with the non-resident card purchase option, because they had coverage for just about everywhere on that side of the state.
Except those spots that don't pay into library service anywhere, the Board of Trustees decided. So, if your municipality doesn't have a library of its own, or isn't part of a library system somewhere, where everyone in the municipality pays into library service through tax assessment, you can't get a library card. Which, unfortunately, means those two municipalities that are right next door to us can't get in on the library fun, unless they can prove they pay property axes on a piece of property somewhere that is in our service area. (OR, we think, that's covered by a cooperative use agreement, but they're checking into that.)
And we have a shiny new civic building with a lovely library right next door. Which is not to say that they can't use the library, browse the collections, use the computers as a guest, attend programs and classes, and otherwise have access to everything that we have on offer within the building. They just can't get a library card, so no home access to databases, no digital materials, no checking anything out for use at home. Because the Board of Trustees said that the offer that the municipality has with residents of reimbursement for half (half, you nitwits?) of the cost of a nonresident card with the metropolitan system, that's not good enough for eligibility for library cards with us. And we don't offer nonresident cards they could buy in to any more, having decided (reasonably) that letting others buy in who aren't paying taxes is philosophically problematic.
The municipality nearby does not advertisse to prospective residents that this is what their library situation is. Which means it falls to us to inform the new residents of that municipality about their ineligibility when they come in looking for a library card. I don't like doing this, because it smacks of denying access to people over what seems to be petty reasons. (I suspect, if I had the bigger, broader view, I might not find them petty at all.) And the library Board and this municipality are essentially at an impasse about the problem. The municipality, which prides itself on being a low-taxes environment, is unwilling to annex to the library system because the potential maximum levy for the system would run them close to their state-mandated maximum, and because (at least by their claim), there aren't enough residents interested in annexation for it to become a ballot issue, which is what they would need to join up with someone. The Library Board of Trustees is unwilling to extend any sort of agreement to this municipality because they don't feel it fair for municipalities who aren't paying for library service for all their residents to buy into a library system piece by piece. And so the problem continues, with my location stuck in the middle and given the unhelpful job of informing people who come into the library about the situation, when it should really be attached to real estate offerings for that municipality, or otherwise done by the municipality in their welcome packet, if they had such a thing.
Library school didn't prepare me for the idea that there would be places that would be perfectly fine with not having library service, or for passing the cost of their library service onto residents and forcing them to take initiative and pay out of their own pockets in actually wanting to get services. It's a cruel joke to insist that only those affluent enough to afford library service are the ones who get to use it outside the building - those people seem like the ones who might also decide they have enough with their current access that they won't need library services, barring outside influences. How can we fulfill a charge to provide materials and access for everyone if some of those people are more than willing to let politics stand in the way?
The nice things about a city library system is that everyone who lives in the city gets to access the library - it's already paid for out of all the taxes that a person pays for city services. When you work for a county system, like mine, the county system often funds itself by levying a tax on people who are in the service area, which starts with "unincorporated" parts of the county and then adds on whichever municipalities decide they want to join the system, rather than maintain their own city libraries. County systems are a little more stable in their funding, because they can control their own tax rate, but they don't always have the universal issue guarantees of a city library.
Each library system also gets to set the eligibility criteria for their library system. Which can make it possible that someone won't be able to get a library card for the library system where they work, because they also don't live within the city boundaries, and the rules say that you have to be paying taxes into that system to be able to get a library card from it. Some places, such as Montana and Hawai'i, have adopted the pose that if you are eligible for a library card anywhere in their state, that library card will work at all other libraries in the state - a giant union catalog, essentially, with some standardization of records such that you can pop into any library anywhere and check out or return materials. Our current executive director had just completed one of these statewide projects before joining our organization.
Barring the statewide library card, many library systems forge what we officially call "cooperative use agreements", more colloquially called reciprocal borrowing, where library systems agree that they will issue library cards in their system to members of another library system, based on what eligibility rules the library system lays down. There's generally a financial component to this, where systems will exchange some amount of funding with each other based on the number of people that keep and hold library cards in the reciprocal borrowing areas. This doesn't mean that someone can borrow from one system and return to another, unless they want to rack up whatever overdue fine will accumulate while the materials sit and wait to be sent back to their originating library system, but it does often mean that someone can hold a library card in their primary residence and at their place of work. (With the advent of digital collections and subscriptions, what that often means is that maintaining library cards in a couple of systems gives you broader access to digital than you would otherwise have.)
Failing the cooperative use agreement, where people can get library cards for free from other systems, some library system allow for the purchase of a non-resident card, where a family can pay (often in full, up front) the approximate tax cost of a library card and be able to use a library as if they were a taxpayer. Non-resident cards are often issued one to a family, so as to try and soften the financial blow, but that can mean having to come up with a hundred or more dollars all at once to get your library service for the year. This is the least desirable solution, but it does provide library service i nplaces where there might not be one otherwise.
When I first joined my current system, ten years ago, my branch location was relatively close by to a major metropolitan area that had its own city library system, and near two smaller municipalities that do not subscribe to any library services, either municipally or through annexation to a county system. People in those areas could purchase nonresident cards with the library system at the sum of approximately $120 per year, I believe. Unsurprisingly, this does not make people happy.
When I joined, the location I was in was in the middle of a protracted construction campaign for a new civic building that would house a library, and the site chosen for the new building had been very close to where the old library had been, and the old library had been torn down, with the assumption that the new civic building would be erected in only a few years. I had been hired on to that location with the assumption that within a year or two, the new civic building would be completed and the converted auto parts store location would be a thing of the temporary past. It would take four years before the new building was completed.
However, in the intervening time, the library system managed to hammer out an agreement with the major metropolitan area nearby so that we had cooperative use. This made my job so much easier, as it removed the part of my job where I had to tell residents of that area who were, frankly, closer by to our location than to a branch of the city system. that they couldn't get a free card, but they could pay for a non-rsident card. Yay, reciprocality. Another smaller municipality near the county border finally annexed on a few years later, in exchange for placing a new library branch there, and another couple municipalities near the southern and northern borders of the county also anneded in to library systems, which made it much easier for co-workers stationed near those places, because they no longer had to do fine distinctions of place to determine whether a person was eligible for a library card based on their location. Yay, making it easier for everyone.
The library system also forged (or re-committed to) several other cooperative agreements with other county systems and their major metropolitan areas, to the point where a person who lives on the west side of the state can basically get a library card with most of the county and major city libraries elsewhere in the west side of the state. With those agreements in place, the library system essentially did away with the non-resident card purchase option, because they had coverage for just about everywhere on that side of the state.
Except those spots that don't pay into library service anywhere, the Board of Trustees decided. So, if your municipality doesn't have a library of its own, or isn't part of a library system somewhere, where everyone in the municipality pays into library service through tax assessment, you can't get a library card. Which, unfortunately, means those two municipalities that are right next door to us can't get in on the library fun, unless they can prove they pay property axes on a piece of property somewhere that is in our service area. (OR, we think, that's covered by a cooperative use agreement, but they're checking into that.)
And we have a shiny new civic building with a lovely library right next door. Which is not to say that they can't use the library, browse the collections, use the computers as a guest, attend programs and classes, and otherwise have access to everything that we have on offer within the building. They just can't get a library card, so no home access to databases, no digital materials, no checking anything out for use at home. Because the Board of Trustees said that the offer that the municipality has with residents of reimbursement for half (half, you nitwits?) of the cost of a nonresident card with the metropolitan system, that's not good enough for eligibility for library cards with us. And we don't offer nonresident cards they could buy in to any more, having decided (reasonably) that letting others buy in who aren't paying taxes is philosophically problematic.
The municipality nearby does not advertisse to prospective residents that this is what their library situation is. Which means it falls to us to inform the new residents of that municipality about their ineligibility when they come in looking for a library card. I don't like doing this, because it smacks of denying access to people over what seems to be petty reasons. (I suspect, if I had the bigger, broader view, I might not find them petty at all.) And the library Board and this municipality are essentially at an impasse about the problem. The municipality, which prides itself on being a low-taxes environment, is unwilling to annex to the library system because the potential maximum levy for the system would run them close to their state-mandated maximum, and because (at least by their claim), there aren't enough residents interested in annexation for it to become a ballot issue, which is what they would need to join up with someone. The Library Board of Trustees is unwilling to extend any sort of agreement to this municipality because they don't feel it fair for municipalities who aren't paying for library service for all their residents to buy into a library system piece by piece. And so the problem continues, with my location stuck in the middle and given the unhelpful job of informing people who come into the library about the situation, when it should really be attached to real estate offerings for that municipality, or otherwise done by the municipality in their welcome packet, if they had such a thing.
Library school didn't prepare me for the idea that there would be places that would be perfectly fine with not having library service, or for passing the cost of their library service onto residents and forcing them to take initiative and pay out of their own pockets in actually wanting to get services. It's a cruel joke to insist that only those affluent enough to afford library service are the ones who get to use it outside the building - those people seem like the ones who might also decide they have enough with their current access that they won't need library services, barring outside influences. How can we fulfill a charge to provide materials and access for everyone if some of those people are more than willing to let politics stand in the way?
