Reactions to Williamsburg Regional Library's New Policy

Monday, December 20, 2010

Residents outside the Historic Triangle have questions and concerns over the Williamsburg Regional Library’s recent decision to no longer allow nonresidents to check out materials.

The library has received letters from patrons who are slated to lose their library privileges soon, including William and Mary English professor and author Susan Wise Bauer, who is a resident of Charles City County. “I am absolutely appalled – and angry – to learn of the library’s new policy,” she wrote in a recent letter to the library that she posted on her blog.

“I have been using the Williamsburg Public Library myself since 1973, and have used it for my children for the last nineteen years,” Bauer wrote. “Those of us who live in Charles City, particularly on the eastern end (over an hour away from the Richmond library) have nowhere else to go. We have always considered WRL our public library, and have supported it in every possible manner.”

Charles City County currently has a library that functions out of one room in the courthouse. The library is closed four days a week, and is open for a total of 19 hours a week, according to James Tyler, Jr., Chair of the Charles City County Library Campaign. His organization has raised over $500,000 toward the $5 million cost of a new library.

Before getting their one-room library in 2008, Charles City County was the only locality in the state not to have a public library.

Tyler says his wife has a WRL card and uses the library often. “This will affect many of our citizens,” he says. “Williamsburg has always been a friendly neighbor to us. I’m surprised they would do this.”

Library Director John A. Moorman responded to Bauer’s letter, suggesting she use the Charles City County library instead. “I encourage you to make use of these facilities and work with library staff to provide the services and programs you desire,” he wrote.

People commenting on Bauer’s post asked why the library won’t simply charge a non-resident fee. Moorman says he’s heard the same question in letters and emails he has received.

“Our policy is that [use of the library] is an essential government service, and is paid for by the government,” he says. It is the library’s “strong feeling,” according to Moorman, that the service can’t be paid for by other means such as a user fee.

If the library charged an annual fee of $45 per nonresident, that would total about $270,000 in additional revenue each year, provided all 6,000 out-of-area cardholders paid.

The decision to restrict service is not a cost-saving measure, but rather a means of sustaining financial funding, Moorman says.

Williamsburg and James City County have long-standing contracts with the library for service; James City County contributes more than $6 million a year to the organization and Williamsburg contributes around $800,000. York County has a memo of agreement allowing residents of upper York County to use the library in return for funding, which is about $450,000 for fiscal year 2011.

WRL’s policy, though, until the upcoming change, allows for all state residents or people who own real estate in Virginia to get a library card for free. York County’s most recent agreement runs through 2014, but there is a termination clause that allows York to withdraw funding if it so desires with 60 days' notice.

Thus far, there has been no decision to pull funding, but York County Supervisor Sheila Noll says, “if our library system is cut, would it not follow that [our WRL] funding would get cut? It’s a fairness issue.”

York County Board of Supervisors Chairman Don Wiggins feels strongly that the funds for WRL are a good deal for York residents. "The planned Marquis library [which fell through] would have cost $4 million, plus another $800,000 a year to operate," he says.

The WRL is much closer than York County's other two libraries for about a fifth of the population, and more than 5,000 York County residents use it, Wiggins points out. "We're dumping a fifth of our people on them, but some [York County] supervisors feel it's not right that people from Poquoson, Newport News or Hampton can use Williamsburg's library without [the counties] paying," he says. "But they have libraries that are close to their people."

Noll doesn’t like the idea that WRL is restricting cardholders. “That goes against the mission of the library,” she says. “It should be accessible by everyone. It’s an unfortunate situation, and I hope they will change the [new] policy.”

Until the new policy, had York County decided to stop funding WRL, its residents would still be entitled to free library cards. The funds provided by the county are simply “in recognition of the service we provide,” Moorman says.

Under the new policy, WYDaily asked Moorman what would happen to York County residents should York supervisors withdraw funding. Moorman said those folks would lose their library cards and checkout privileges. “If the government doesn’t contribute,” he says, residents won’t be able to get cards.

"Some supervisors said, well, we can use the library anyway [without county funding]," according to Wiggins. "I don't blame the [Williamsburg] library one bit for this. Some said they can't stop us from using the library -- but now, the library showed them."

Wiggins does hope, though, WRL would consider charging a nominal fee for nonresidents so others can also check out materials.