Another Perspective on the Bellingham Public Library

Pamela Nyberg Kiesner has been the Bellingham Public Library Director since 2004. She received a master’s degree in library science from the University of Michigan.

If you’ve stopped by any Bellingham Public Library facility in the past few months, you’ve noticed how busy we are — we’re checking out a record number of library materials (13 percent more year-to-date versus the same period last year). We logged an amazing 92,000 visits to our libraries in March alone, and filled 48,000 hold requests.

Clearly, the community recognizes the value of their public libraries by using them often. I’m proud of the staff and of the Bellingham Public Library Board of Trustees who wrestle daily with the tough issues of keeping our bustling library functioning despite decreased funding and increased usage.

An article by Fred Voltz in the March 2009 issue of Whatcom Watch expressed many opinions about the Bellingham Public Library and raised many questions. We welcome the opportunity to correct some misstatements and share our perspective.

First, let’s address the question of merging the Bellingham Public Library (BPL) and the Whatcom County Library System (WCLS). Both libraries have agreed to explore issues related to a merger, as noted in the Library Board minutes from November 18, 2008 and February 17, 2009.

Under Washington state law, a consolidation of the two libraries could only happen if a majority of city of Bellingham residents vote to be annexed to the Whatcom County Library System. Bellingham’s libraries would become branches of WCLS. Are there valid reasons, including economic benefits for doing so? Are Bellingham voters willing to join this independent taxing district? These are questions being pursued.

We believe that if a study is justified, it is essential to hire an independent, impartial team of experts to tackle all the issues, including union contract implications, the different service philosophies of rural versus urban libraries, and governance.

A major question: will an annexation save tax dollars? Each library is funded differently, and this needs to be included in the equation. However, this is not just a dollars and cents issue that can be tackled by accountants alone; a careful understanding of the way each library operates, current opportunities for efficiencies due to emerging library technology, and a review of potential new service delivery methods must all contribute to a complete cost-benefit analysis.

BPL and WCLS have a decades-long history of working together. The two library systems are already models of cooperation in Washington state, sharing a computer system, library materials, delivery systems and much more.

The two systems have collaboratively approached purchasing, collection development, staff training, delivery, and board education. Both library directors and boards are committed to a high level of collaboration as a way of stretching and sharing resources and gaining efficiencies, giving taxpayers much more for their tax dollars, including the unique titles owned by each library.

In addition to our proven success collaborating with WCLS, we are proud of our partnership with Whatcom Community College (WCC) to provide the WCC Connection, a service which allows north side residents to pick up and return public library materials at the college library.

We are exploring a similar partnership with Western Washington University. Bellingham Technical College is another possibility. We have signed a letter of support for a Learning Commons project with WCC with the possibility of one day offering a full-service public library in a mixed-use facility on the WCC campus. Unfortunately a project of this scope requires state funding — an unlikely source in the coming years. In this economy, private funding is also exceedingly scarce.

To be clear, the Bellingham Public Library Board of Trustees has not received an offer from any commercial property owners to donate a branch library facility on the north side, like it did in Barkley Village from the Barkley Company. At this time, we do not have the funding to consider staffing a library branch on the north side — in fact, we are facing potential staff layoffs.

As the population grows, the library board will consider the need for additional library locations. Just this year for north side residents, we added a drop box in partnership with the new Community Food Co-op on Cordata Boulevard — one more example of a way we are trying to provide neighborhood services in a cost-effective manner.

Before we consider adding facilities, we must be sure to maintain existing ones. The Fairhaven Branch Library is 104 years old and has long suffered from water infiltration. The budget for this year’s project to mitigate the associated water problems has been set at $1.3 million.

Meeting rooms at the Fairhaven Branch were used by 1,000 groups in 2008 and brought in revenue close to $40,000 which helps offset the library’s budget. Meeting rooms are a popular and important function of a public library, providing a venue for the exchange of ideas and information. Our library book clubs use the rooms, story times are held in the rooms, teenagers enjoy age-specific programs, and many community groups provide public programs for all ages.

Bellingham recently spent $163,000 (not $500,000 as stated by Voltz) developing a library-building program for the Central (downtown) Library, which included an analysis of current space usage, projected future library needs, and estimated costs for this civic project. The building has not yet been designed, and the estimated costs to construct and furnish the Central Library, including a parking garage, were $51 million (not $135 million).

It was the library board’s decision to look for available properties for a new Central Library in the downtown core to serve the many residents of the downtown area neighborhoods, and to serve the community at large in a central location.

The Central Library attracts 700,000-plus visitors a year, making it an essential component of a thriving central business district. A strong Central Library is also essential to supporting a branch library system, and making sure it can operate efficiently to serve branches is a necessary first step before adding more facilities to our system.

The suggestion to relocate the Children’s Library to the former Children’s Museum does not support a primary library goal, which is to start children on a path of literacy and lifelong learning, then transition them to services for teens and adults. Moving the children’s department out of the library severs the relationship between children’s and family library services, something we are not willing to do unless for a short period of time.

As it is, the Children’s Library is completely cut off from the rest of the library because of its location on the lower level. This means that we need to provide staff to handle circulation functions on both floors, which is not cost- or staff-efficient.

Speaking of staffing, increases to the library’s operations budget from 2007 to 2009 are primarily personnel-related, such as cost-of-living adjustments, additional hours for temporary labor to cover staff absences, and the addition of security personnel.

The library books and materials budget saw a gain, although this gain was offset by a 20 percent budget cut already this year. The cost of maintaining our facilities also increased — this is a “charge-back” the library pays to the city’s facilities department over which we do not have control. Most other line items for the 2009 budget show decreases from the adopted 2008 budget.

As recent news releases from the mayor’s office have explained, more budget cuts are in store for all city services. The library recently conducted a user survey to gather input about library services and collections, and to determine if certain cuts may be more palatable than others. Results of the survey are available on the library Web site at http://www.bellinghampubliclibrary.org.

The Bellingham Public Library Board of Trustees is a dedicated group of five citizen volunteers appointed by the mayor to govern and set policy for the library. The board meets monthly, usually at 4 p.m. on the third Tuesday at the Central Library — check our Web site for times and locations, which may change. Meetings are open to the public and include a public comment period toward the end of the meeting. We invite you to attend a meeting to learn more about how your library operates and the many challenges facing the library. §