County Begins Planning for New Reston Regional Library

Fairfax County has begun planning for a new library in Reston.  Please see the link to the article by Karen Goff in Reston Now.  http://www.restonnow.com/2015/02/18/county-begins-planning-for-new-reston-library/

The document from Department of Public Works presented to the Library Board of Trustees is here:

Projected Cut to Library Staff in Ed Long's Advertized Budget.

On February 17, 2015 County Executive Ed Long submitted his Advertized Budget to the Board of Supervisors.

See page 41 of the Executive Summary for the cuts to the library:

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dmb/fy2016/advertised/overview/07_executive_summary.pdf

Of great concern is that this proposed FY16 budget eliminates 21 (14 FTE) circulation aide positions from the library branches.  

Circulation aides are a necessary component to running a public library. Their duties include supervising volunteers, assisting patrons with technology, processing holds/deliveries/transfers, mending books, processing periodicals, overseeing handouts, dealing with lost/damaged items, processing library card applications and entering patron data, sweeping, straightening, marking items that are used in house, helping investigate and clearing up items on patron accounts, ordering supplies, putting up signs for holidays and closings, clearing the book drop, giving directions, helping with surveys, handling book bag sales, assisting with programs, booking the display case, providing readers advisory, assisting patrons in other languages, searching for items on various lists including "missing," "claims returned" and holds.

Despite the opinion voiced in the Executive Summary, circulation aides are not superfluous nor have they become irrelevant with automated technology purchased by the Library Administration.  They are a necessary component of a functioning library.  

Currently about 70 positions, including the 21 (14FTE) circulation aide positions, have been held vacant by Department of Management and Budget resulting in a four-fold increase in overtime hours since last year to maintain hours of service at the branches.  

Reliance on overtime is not sustainable and talented staff are leaving to work in other libraries that are adequately supported by their counties and cities.  

In addition to abolishing the circulation aide positions, $300,000 was cut from the budget and it would be useful to know just what will be lost with that portion of the cut.  What other library functions might be compromised?  

Fairfax Library Advocates encourage library patrons to write their county supervisors to restore library funding to preserve staffing levels.   Ongoing staff reductions will ultimately lead to reducing service hours and branch closures.

Library Advocates to Meet Saturday, February 28, 2015

The next meeting of the Fairfax Library Advocates will be held at George Mason Regional Library, 10 am to 12 pm, on Saturday, February 28, 2015.  7001 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, VA 22003.

County Executive Ed Long will be announcing his Advertized Budget February 17, 2015.  It is very likely that much of our meeting will be focused on the FY2016 library budget.

Please put the date on your calendar.

Agenda to follow.

RCA Board of Directors Seeks Additional Resources for Fairfax County Public Library

RESOLUTION

In the matter of

Resources for the Fairfax County Public Library

Reston Citizens Association 

February 9, 2015

                The Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) is a public institution that is vital to the high quality of life of the residents of the County and especially important to less fortunate individuals and families who rely on its resources for helping children learn, job hunting, and starting and managing small businesses. 

●     WHEREAS Reston is a planned community whose vision is to provide a high quality of life for people of all incomes, ages, races and ethnicities;

●     WHEREAS the Reston Regional Library, in partial fulfillment of that Reston vision, is among the County’s busiest in serving a wide variety of people;

●     WHEREAS the Reston Regional Library, like the other 22 FCPL branches in the County, has suffered significant, continuous cuts in its budget, staff, and collection over the last decade;

●     WHEREAS FCPL as a whole has experienced a 22% decline in its operating (General Fund) expenditures —while the county-wide budget has increased 15% in the same timeframe;

●     WHEREAS FCPL as a whole has experienced a 14% decline in full time positions over the same timeframe - while county-wide full time positions have increased by three percent since FY2007;

●     WHEREAS FCPL has reduced its collection inventory by 16% in the decade between, including a 12% reduction in children’s books;

●     WHEREAS FCPL has reduced the number of library children’s programs;

●     WHEREAS FCPL’s policy of considering the discard of library materials after only two years of being unused is exceptionally short by public library norms and has contributed substantially to the decline in the FCPL materials inventory;

●     WHEREAS FCPL does not include in-house use of library materials prior to creating the "dead" list,

●     WHEREAS the impact of all these reductions in budget, staffing, and materials collection has caused a decrease in the quality of the FCPL system and by extension a decrease in the quality of life for Reston Life;

●     WHEREAS this has been exhibited by the American Library Association’s Public Library Division which ranks FCPL in the bottom third of Metropolitan Washington public library systems (14^th of 19 public library systems);

BE IT RESOLVED THAT the RCA Board of Directors calls upon:

●     The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors (FCBOS) to index the FCPL budget for FY2016 and all following FY to other comparable libraries in the Washington DC Metro area;

●     The FCBOS to fill the vacant full-time positions and ensure that FCPL library staffing levels are indexed to regional norms;

●     The FCBOS to increase the number of full-time positions—and fill them—at least at the rate of growth of the County’s population over the next decade;

●     The FCBOS to direct the FCPL to replace any discarded materials at least one-for-one plus increasing holdings at the percentage change in the county’s population year-to-year;

●     The FCBOS to direct the FCPL to include in-house use of library materials such that those books are not included on the initial "dead" list to be discarded.

●     The FCBOS to direct the FCPL to change its “unused” material discard policy to national and regional norms;

●     Fairfax County citizens and homeowners associations to adopt similar resolutions to encourage the FCBOS to treat the libraries as essential to the quality of life for Fairfax County citizens.

Finding the Next Library Director

The committee to find a new library director has put up a survey on the library website so people can give their opinions about what they would like in a new library director. 


By spring 2016, Fairfax County Public Library will hire a new library director. The library director has four main areas of responsibility:

• To the community;
• To staff;
• To County Supervisors;
• To the Library Board of Trustees

The director works with various constituents, donors, governing boards, and more. The public library provides a rich array of services, programs, information, recreational and educational resources that are available in twenty-three branches and online. The director is the head of a 400+ employee organization; ensures that the monies allocated by the County Supervisors are wisely spent; that county policies and priorities are adhered to; and that the policies and wishes of the Library Board of Trustees are implemented.

Please help us find the best person to serve as our next library director by answering these questions.

Here is the link to the survey:  http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/directorsearch.htm

HB2066 Referred to House Appropriations Committee

The Full Committee on General Laws of the Virginia House of Delegates voted to refer HB 2066, Delegate Mark Keam's bill to declare libraries an essential part of the provision of public education, to the House Appropriations Committee.   Advocate Kathy Kaplan spoke before the Committee and urged them to pass the bill directly to the full House, but several delegates wanted an analysis of the budgetary impact of the bill first.  A few delegates were even more generally skeptical, one questioning the need for libraries at all, stating, "We have computers now." 

The House Appropriations Committee is expected to produce a report on the economic impact of the bill before further consideration.  

The Advocates again would like to thank Delegate Keam for his leadership and tenacious advocacy on this bill.  

 

We would urge constituents of Committee members Delegate LeMunyon, Delegate David Bulova, Delegate Kaye Kory, Delegate David Albo to encourage them to support the libraries in their districts (and throughout the State) and to vote to pass HB 2066 when it is returned to the General Laws committee.  

 

 Delegate Albo, Delegate Gilbert, Chair, and George Cain, Clerk.

House Committee on General Laws

Inside Scoop with Cesar Del Aguila

Ambassador Dennis Hays of the Fairfax Library Advocates, FCPLEA President Jennifer McCullough, SEIU VA 512 President David Broder, Tysons-Pimmit Friends President John Ball, Tysons-Pimmit Friends Board member/ Fairfax Federation Library Committee Chair Kathy Kaplan were interviewed by Cesar Del Aguila on Inside Scoop Virginia regarding the challenges facing FCPL and their hopes for the future of Fairfax County Public Libraries.

Link to Inside Scoop: 
http://youtu.be/4k2o8XOglNI

David Broder, Cesar del Aguila, Jennifer McCullough, John Ball, Kathy Kaplan, and Ambassador Dennis Hays