State consultants to visit local libraries

By Sam Harvey
Staff Reporter

Turnout was perhaps highest at the Frankford Public Library (Jan. 31), where Board of Trustees President Carrie Bennett said nearly 40 supporters turned out. There’d been concerns that the state and county might be considering a closure, or merger with the Selbyville Public Library.

Bennett said everything was still in the study phase, at present — nothing had been decided yet — and she thought the meeting had gone well. “We presented them with some of our ideas, and we’re willing to adapt, streamline in order to survive,” she said.

According to Bennett, the consultants had suggested there might be some cost benefits to bringing the smaller libraries under the county’s aegis. As it stands, the county predominantly (80 percent) funds operations at all Sussex libraries (and the Bookmobile), but only runs three of them.

The other dozen-or-so town libraries are independents. But library consultants Bill Wilson (Wilson & Himmel) and his colleagues are fleshing out the county-specific details of a statewide master plan for the library system.

The underlying question: Is there a better way to spend the state’s money, to deliver citizens the same or better service at a lower cost?

As noted, the state delivers operations support along the lines of 20 percent. However, Delaware does match (50 percent) on capital costs. Would new money be better spent on expansions at the small, local libraries, or on one big regional library?

Wilson noted economies of scale, and the fact that a single, larger library seemed to attract more users than several smaller ones. He said the state had identified a need for larger libraries in Sussex County. Kent had the Dover Library, New Castle had the Wilmington Institute, but there isn’t a major regional facility in Sussex County, Wilson noted.

In defining “major,” he suggested a 50,000- to 60,000-square-foot range — a large collection with a strong reference section and multiple services.

But a couple people in attendance at the South Coastal Library meeting (Jan. 31), expressed skepticism — among them, Sussex County Council Member George Cole.

“Is anybody in the county pushing for that?” he asked. “Or is this coming from the state, something you’d like to see?” He said he didn’t think people would drive to Georgetown (the proposed location), even for a top-shelf facility.

State Librarian Anne Norman said they’d fielded comments from focus groups that the local collections weren’t deep enough. Norman said a regional facility, paired with group purchasing and group cataloguing, could boost everyone’s collections. And Wilson suggested a regional facility would place interlibrary loans from the main collection just one day away (via courier).

But there is already a large library in Georgetown, Cole pointed out — the Stephen J. Betze Library, at Delaware Tech. He asked whether the state had considered that site.

Norman said state planners had concluded that Sussex County had about half as much library space as it needed. “We have many libraries here, but they’re all too small,” she noted.

And even Betze can’t accommodate a regional library of the proposed scale.

Cole suggested that concerns that a large facility might draw funds away from the smaller local libraries might outweigh interest in the added services such a facility might be able to provide. And if shallow collections are the problem, he suggested warehousing, rather than a fully-staffed, full-service library.

“If you need another collection, buy another collection,” Cole said. “Don’t build a new building.”

But Norman noted the efforts (and grant monies) of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, targeting another problem that warehousing wouldn’t serve — access to personal computers.

Bennett in particular pointed to a definite need for such a service, in Frankford. “If the state asked us, ‘Can you reduce your DVD collection, or your McNaughton collection (popular fiction and nonfiction offerings, on loan)?’ I’d say, yes,” Bennett said. “As long as they keep us open. But give us more computers.

“These kids — you can’t even apply to college without a computer,” she noted. “This is too vital. Some of these kids have no other access to technology.”