Timberland Regional Library Board of Trustees members Brian Mittge and Hal Blanton presented a “state of the library” update on Tuesday, May 20, during the weekly Lewis County Board of Commissioners business meeting.
During the presentation, the two Lewis County-based trustees spoke about the library system's work to expand services and resources despite limited funding.
The Timberland Regional Library opened a location for the Mountain View Library in Randle earlier this year and continues to expand its mobile services under the umbrella of the Anywhere Library program, which provides pop-up library services in different parts of the county for a limited time.
Other new resources include expanding access to E-books, audiobooks and other digital content, which the trustees said is very popular but come at a higher financial cost.
The presentation provided a bit of hope for library services at a time when many are concerned about the future of their local libraries after a recent executive order from the Trump administration cut funding to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which provides some funding for state libraries.
The Timberland Regional Library has so far escaped direct impacts from the federal funding reductions. That's because the regional library is funded mostly by timber revenue and property taxes in the five counties that it serves: Lewis, Thurston, Grays Harbor, Mason and Pacific.
“Fiscally, we are in really pretty good shape,” Blanton said. “Over the years, it's always up and down with tax revenues, etc., but we have figured out through TRL a lot of ways to make sure that we have stable services that we bring and that we are not in flux.”
In an attempt to expand services without increased funding, the library system has reduced some of its staffing or expanded access to libraries when staff isn't present.
For starters, Mittge mentioned that the regional library has moved away from the branch manager model and now instead employs regional managers who oversee multiple libraries in an area.
The library has also started its expanded access hours program, which allows library patrons to access libraries from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. using a key card.
“That is a model we could be seeing more of in the future where instead of a couple library staff being there you have a card,” Mittge said. “It's a card that any library patron can get to get into these libraries during times that either the staff aren't there yet or, for Naselle, there won’t be staff there during the week.”
The new program is used at many Timberland libraries, including the new Randle location, but Mittge added that the libraries in Lewis County are still staffed for normal business hours as well.
With respect to expanding access to virtual and remote resources, Mittge and Blanton recognized the demand from the community but added that providing those resources often comes at a higher cost.
“Another thing that is changing rapidly is the use of digital resources, so we still have libraries, we still have books and people still check them out, but we’re about at a point where as many or more checkouts are made digitally,” Mittge said. “Whether for your iPad or for listening on your phone, if it's a book on tape as we used to call it, and it's an interesting change because it’s more convenient but it's also more costly.”
While a library can purchase books en masse and at discounted rates, the high demand for e-books and similar resources means publishers can charge a hefty price. Also, unlike paper books, which can be rented out as long as they remain in good shape, many of the electronic rentals come with a limited number of rentals per purchase.
“So you used to be able to buy a book at a discount, check it out 20, 30, 50 times until it wore out or became no longer of interest,” Mittge said. “But digital materials you don't necessarily get that discount and you only get a certain number of checkouts on it. So, that's a cost that's increased, and we're looking at that.”
As the Timberland Regional Library works on expanding its resources, some patrons might see access to other resources supported by the Washington State Library shrink.
Previous articles by The Chronicle and other news outlets have reported that the state library had $3.9 million in federal funding pulled from its budget for this year's operations. The money from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services is used by the state library to fund e-books and audiobooks for small libraries along with expanded WiFi and many other programs.
In previous reporting by The Chronicle, the manager for the Centralia and Chehalis Timberland libraries, Muriel Wheatley, said she is most concerned about access to resources funded by the state, such as the catalog of databases that the state pays to access or the Talking Book and Braille Library.
“However, we receive so many benefits by what the State Library is able to do,” Wheatley said. “In my time at Timberland Library, I’ve signed up so many people for this service, and it’s hugely impactful for people to have materials that they can actually read.”
Learn more about the Timberland Regional Library system at https://trl.org.
