By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
A Yachats commission that guides library operations on Thursday unanimously accepted a consultant’s report suggesting major changes, including joining a statewide digital and a countywide library network, hiring a half-time director and tripling the size of an earlier, proposed expansion.
The Library Commission’s acceptance doesn’t mean it endorses the report’s recommendations, just that it will spend the next several months going through its nine primary recommendations and eventually presenting choices to the City Council.
The report comes at a critical juncture for the city.
The library is a heavily used and prized institution in Yachats, dating back to the 1930s and a lending library run by the Yachats Ladies Club. Its supporters want to expand the 47-year-old, cramped 2,300-square-foot building on West Seventh Street and has received $300,000 in bequests to help with that.
But the five-member Library Commission has three new members all relatively new to the community. It reports to a City Council, which in January will also have a new mayor and two new members with a generally more conservative outlook on spending and a more critical view of city operations.
The commission will also have to shepherd the consultant’s 70-page report through a community which has strong opinions on almost any subject.
The consultant, Penny Hummel of Portland, even referenced that in the introduction of her report: “During the assessment process, numerous Yachats residents expressed a great love for their home while at the same time also feeling challenged by living in a small town with many strong personalities and competing interests. As one resident said, “If you talk to people who live here … there’s the way the rest of the world works, and then there’s the Yachats way.”
Thoroughness of report draws praise
Commission members and at least one City Council member Thursday praised the thoroughness of Hummel’s report, which the city commissioned last spring for $14,000. It delved deeply into library use, how it compares to libraries in similarly sized cities, programming, its book, audio and other collections, volunteers, governance, and a half-dozen other topics.
Hummel told the commission Thursday that the initial force behind the study was to help determine how large a proposed expansion might be.
But what she identified as the library’s most immediate need and one of her top recommendation is for the city to join a statewide digital library consortium that would immediately raise Yachats’ offerings from 10,000 books to 100,000 downloadable books and recordings.
Joining would cost about $4,000 a year. A library support group, Friends of Yachats Library, said at the end of a meeting it is applying for a two-year grant to cover that cost.
Hummel’s report also warned that under a relatively new state law, the library could lose its state accreditation unless it hires a part-time director. Hummel recommended a half-time director, who would be a city employee, to help ensure smoother operations and oversee the library’s many volunteers.
Among other major recommendations, Hummel said Yachats should develop a partnership – and later consider joining — the Lincoln County Library District. That taxing district, formed in 1991, provides services, funds and library support throughout Lincoln County – except for in Yachats.
Joining would require Yachats voters to approve being annexed into the district. The district currently has a tax rate of 33 cents per $1,000 assessed property value – or $99 a year on a $300,000 home.
As an interim step and without becoming part of the library district, Hummel said Yachats should also consider joining the district’s Chinook Library Network, which allows sharing of materials between three city libraries and three coastal community college libraries.
How we got here
The Library Commission initiated the study because the nonprofit support group, Friends of the Library, suddenly and unexpectedly got a big infusion of money last year — a $150,000 bequest by Marguerite Peterson in memory of her late husband, Bent. The city has another $150,000 gift from the Hall family to be used for an expansion.
Peterson’s donation prompted the commission to ask the city to postpone an approved $320,000 project to remodel and expand the library by 400 square feet. It won council approval for a deeper study of the facility and community desires, see if it could leverage even more donations and grants, and make the library building a bigger and better place.
Based on use and community desires, Hummel recommended adding 1,380 square feet to the library building – three times what had been originally planned.
Commission Chair David Rivinus said the city already had a much-earlier architect’s design that added 1,200 square feet to the building that might work very well.
Other highlights of Hummel’s report:
- Relative to other nearby communities on the Oregon Coast, a significantly higher percentage of Yachats residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and the percentage of residents with graduate degrees is more than double that of Florence or Waldport.
- In 2018-19, Yachats Public Library patrons checked out or renewed the equivalent of over 13 items for every man, woman and child in the library’s service area. This is even higher than the 12 items circulated per capita reported by the nearby Waldport Public Library, which is high relative to its own peer libraries. Yachats’ high circulation is particularly remarkable since it is a standalone library and it does not offer downloadable e-books and audiobooks.
- Overall, respondents to the assessment survey indicated that improving the library’s collection was their highest priority. 70 percent indicated that they felt it was “important” or “very important” for the library to have a larger collection, as well as to have access to the collections of other libraries via a shared catalog. 58 percent indicated that it was “very important” to have access to downloadable e-books and audiobooks.
- The Yachats City Library also is the only public library in Lincoln County that is not part of a consortium with a shared catalog and accompanying opportunity to share resources.
- The level of volunteer engagement at the Yachats Public Library is truly outstanding. With 2,900 hours reported in 2018-19, volunteer commitment to the Yachats library is comparable to the hours reported by public libraries serving communities with populations many times larger. The smallest of these communities is Stayton, which has ten times the population of Yachats; the largest is Happy Valley, whose library serves almost 60,000 people.
- As noted at the beginning of this assessment, one of Yachats’ unique characteristics is its robust volunteer culture. Many Yachats retirees are well-credentialed professionals accustomed to making their mark upon the world, and they bring this perspective with them as they get involved in the community. A resident said, “It’s an interesting place because there are a lot of educated folks who used to be bigwigs who now don’t know how not to be bigwigs.”
- In order to maintain its legal status as a public library, the Yachats Public Library must comply with relevant Oregon statutes. For public libraries serving communities of 2,000 or less, Oregon Statute 543-010-0036 mandates 10 minimum conditions. The Yachats Public Library currently meets seven out of 10.
A summary of Hummel’s recommendations:
- Develop a consortium partnership with the Lincoln County Library District, which would include: sharing books and other physical library materials with the seven other libraries in the Chinook Library Network; adding downloadable books and audiobooks to the library’s collection; improving the library’s collection and patron records with a more robust integrated library system to better serve the community.
- Explore the viability of annexation to the Lincoln County Library District, which would increase tax support for the library’s operating expenses, as well as offer all the benefits noted above.
- As an interim step prior to establishing a formal relationship with the Lincoln County Library District, consider offering downloadable books and audiobooks through direct membership in the Oregon Digital Library Consortium/Library2Go.
- Hire a library director to comply with new state requirements for all legally recognized public libraries in Oregon, better support the work of library volunteers and ensure the smooth operation of the library.
- Develop bylaws that state the specific powers and areas of oversight granted to the Library Commission by the City Council.
- Develop a Memorandum of Agreement between the City of Yachats and the Friends of the Library to clarify respective roles in overlapping areas, specifically fundraising and public awareness.
- Develop and implement library policies in several key areas, including intellectual freedom, patron behavior, collection management and use of the internet.
- Improve the library’s website so that it includes all the necessary components to be useable and informative to the community.
- Renovate or rebuild the library facility to increase seating, computers and meeting room capacity, improve staff/volunteer workspaces, and make the library ADA accessible. The estimated needed square footage to meet these needs is 3,756, representing an increase of 1,380 square feet over the current space.
- Install a door counter to capture visitor data.
- Create job descriptions for library volunteers.
To read Hummel’s 70-page report, go here.