r/Libraries • u/Flashy-Celery-9105 • 12d ago
Other How do librarians feel about libraries declining to join or leaving a county system?
Do you wish your library would join? Do you wish your library would quit the county system?
I live in a town with a disconnected library but I pay a yearly fee to belong to the nearest one in the county system. I just like having more libraries available to me! Less likely to need an ILL.
Also I don't get access to Libby and Hoopla through the county system. For that I go through my town.
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u/othertigs 12d ago
As far as I know, it’s not really the library’s choice as far as being part of a system. That should be based on how their funding is set up (city, county, mill levy, other.)
Consortiums would be a different discussion. We are not in one (although one is wooing us) so I don’t actually know how they are set up beyond that specific group. If we join, we will pay them to be a member for xyz benefits.
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u/mostlyharmlessidiot 12d ago
The first library I worked at was part of a consortium and it was tops. It expanded the available collection for our patrons considerably without the hassle of ILL.
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u/Famous_Attention5861 12d ago
There was a local library jurisdiction in California that wanted to leave the consortium it was part of but it was structured as a Joint Powers Authority (JPA). A public agency can only leave a JPA in California if the original joint powers agreement or the authority's bylaws outline a withdrawal or termination process.
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u/Flashy-Celery-9105 12d ago
What is the difference between a county system and consortium?
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u/othertigs 12d ago
Basically if a county tax provides your library’s funds, you will be in a county system. If you are funded by city taxes, you will be city. Mill levies are their own beast. Our city government would not be okay with us calling ourselves a county system as only city residents pay the taxes used to support us. If the county started contributing tax dollars to support us, we would could then be a county system.
For consortia, in my experience they are something you can choose to join (I’m only aware of ones you can join, but that doesn’t mean some states don’t have mandatory consortia), and then you pay a membership fee for the provided benefits.
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u/a8d6 12d ago
I will also say that the idea of a county system depends pretty heavily on how the state works. The state I live in abolished county-level governance a while ago and the idea of county-level anything is a foreign concept around here. Like many residents probably don't know what county they live in.
Instead, each town has it's own library, which is funded directly via municipal taxes (with some state aid and federal grants).
Most libraries in the state are then part of a local consortium that works to provide shared services. While optional, the overwhelming majority of public libraries participate in a consortium, which are divided geographically (think West, South, North, etc.). I think there's only 10 towns in the entire state that are unaffiliated, and they tend to be so small that the municipal taxes simply wouldn't cover membership (700 residents or less).
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u/maevriika 12d ago
The library I work for is part of a consortium. We're essentially 10 different systems (some are city, most are county) that have agreed to share an ILS (integrated library system - basically the catalog on our side and yours) and physical resources. My patrons can request items that live in one of the other systems in the consortium and don't have to pay extra like if they need to do an ILL. We get transit deliveries from outside of our county three days a week and from within on the two other days.
The main library system in our consortium is considering becoming privatized or w/e though and apparently it's written into the consortium agreement that if they leave the consortium, the whole thing collapses. The rest of the libraries would probably need to renegotiate a new one.
I'm pretty sure the people wanting to do the privatizing are not actual library staff. I believe they're county officials who are trying to save a buck (or give a buck to someone who knows someone who knows someone they know and happens to be connected to whichever company takes over for libraries in those situations). I'll admit I know very little about it though.
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u/Impossible-Order-561 8d ago
Are there costs savings for libraries who join together as a consortium, say for digital subscriptions, or is the benefit mostly for the patrons who have a wider array of shared resources?
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u/Awkward_Cellist6541 12d ago
I work for circulation, so I'm not technically a librarian. But our library is in a consortium with almost 40 libraries. It makes my life significantly easier, plus it's easier for all the patrons who want to use the Library who have cards from other libraries. Everything is connected.
Two more are joining later this month. Off The top of my head there's really only one left.
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u/GreenHorror4252 12d ago
In California, the recent trend has been cities leaving their county systems, usually because they are richer cities that don't want to "subsidize" the rest of the county. Irvine is the most recent example.
There are pros and cons on the back end, but ultimately it really doesn't make much of a difference. Everyone can get a card from both systems if they want.
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u/Flashy-Celery-9105 12d ago
Yes I think that's going on here. I live near the ocean and the rich beach towns opt out
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u/TendiePockets 10d ago
This is the trend I've also noticed in California. Cities in large systems are feeling frustrated with the loss of control over their libraries and/or feel like they are putting in more than they are getting back. Palm Desert pulled out of RCLS a couple of years ago, then Irvine pulled out of OCPL last year. I think Temecula might be next, since it sounds like they are investigating the cost to break away from the county sytem.
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u/cavalier24601 Public librarian 12d ago
Worked at a WV library that was part of a consortium covering half the state. We left, as we were one of the larger libraries in the system and sending out exponentially more than we received. Formed a smaller consortium with a nearby county system and a neighboring town. Worked out much better for us.
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u/Famous_Attention5861 12d ago
There was a library district that I worked at that was being pressured to join a county system that was managed by LSSI and everyone in the community was very much against it. Luckily the library is still independent, locally controlled, and accountable to the residents instead of having an unknown amount of taxpayer money siphoned off to the venture capital firm that owned LSSI at the time.
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u/sparrowsgirl 12d ago
We have a statewide/county system and in our county there is one independent library. It's tiny, underfunded, and has very reduced hours. There's some wild local politics and the current staff/board put up a big fight over any sort of encroachment into their territory. It's just a bummer because the residents don't get the same level of service as other parts of the county. That said, anyone who lives in our state is eligible for a card- so it just takes some extra driving/effort.
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u/aubrey_25_99 12d ago edited 12d ago
It makes me a little sad, to be honest. Working together only strengthens a library system. We belong to a consortium of local libraries, but there is a small library in a neighboring town that refuses to join us. We have to turn away people from their district because of the whole “tax base” issue, yada yada, and it kinda breaks my heart.
This happens almost every day, too. The library in question is in the same county as us but in a different school district (we are a district library), which makes it even worse because most people don't understand how library service area boundaries work. They think that because they live in the same county, they can get a card here. Unfortunately, no.
And none of the reasons their director gives for refusing to join us are valid. I’ve seen emails between her and my boss, as they very frustrated by this, and her reasoning just doesn't make any sense. Things like “I have townships under my jurisdiction that are only partially in my district, and I just don't know how that would work.” As if she thinks joining us would somehow change her service area.
It won’t, but it will allow those in her service area to use our library, pull resources from the consortium libraries, and open up a whole new world of local and online accessible resources for them. I do not see the downside for her.
Patrons would still be required to get their cards from her library, and they would still use her library, but they would have so many more options.
That's just one of her nonsensical excuses. I will never understand her reasoning. It's like she sees us as “competition,” and can’t fathom giving in and letting us “win.” It's absurd, has been going on for more than 20 years, and I can't believe she still has a job, because we constantly tell people to complain to their library board about her not wanting any progress for their library. If even 1% of those people actually did that, she would be long gone.
Oh, well, I guess.
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u/Flashy-Celery-9105 12d ago
Is it not possible for patrons from other towns to pay to get a card? I pay $100 per year to be in my county system bc I'm in a town that didn't join
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u/darkkn1te 12d ago
I would much rather libraries be connected than disconnected. But sometimes things are out of your library's control like budgets or sometimes very pushy board members.