Financial bind may sever library’s mutual ties

For 12 years, public libraries around Tampa Bay have proudly served borrowers from neighboring counties for free. Now the cooperation may be breaking down.

The Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library Board has recommended that Hillsborough County withdraw from the arrangement because its north Hillsborough libraries are devoting so much staff time to serving Pasco County residents.

Those residents account for one-fourth of the materials borrowed from the Lutz Branch Library, one-tenth from Odessa’s Austin Davis Library and more than one-sixth from the New Tampa Regional Library, the second busiest Hillsborough library.

Hillsborough’s decision would seal off its books, CDs and DVDs to all non-Hillsborough residents. They could use Hills­borough libraries but could borrow materials only by ordering them through their home-county libraries or by paying Hillsborough an annual $100 nonresident fee.
…
In the fiscal year that ended in September, Hillsborough residents borrowed 2,180 items from Pasco libraries while Pasco residents borrowed 260,286 items from Hillsborough libraries.

Librarians have expressed pride in the widespread system of sharing among bay area counties.

“I was one of the librarians that helped start it,” said Joe Stines, director of the Tampa-Hillsborough system. “But when it gets so unbalanced, I can’t defend it.”

Source: St. Petersburg Times

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 and is filed under Libraries and Librarianship, Search News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.