In his March 6 column, Barrhead Leader managing editor Barry Kerton suggested the time has come to consider having its own library that is separate from Barrhead Elementary School.
His primary reason for suggesting this is simple. It is hard for one facility to serve two masters with different goals, one being to educate grade school children who use the facility as part of school programming, and the other to serve the general public.
And all things considered, the library does a good job juggling these differences, but the situation isn’t ideal.
Nerves can be frayed by one party or another. For example, when library staff are trying to put on a program for the general public, there might be a class is hosting an activity at the same time that disrupts patrons. And of course, the reverse is also true. This is why very few communities have libraries in school buildings.
But even if you believe there isn’t an issue, there may come a day where the decision might be taken out of the community’s hands. There is no guarantee that when BES is replaced or undergoes a full modernization (whenever that is) it will still be possible to have a combined library.
So the time to start planning for such an eventuality is now.
As you read on page A2, Town of Barrhead councillors are open to the possibility of increasing the town’s contribution in an effort to eliminate library membership fees. It is something library director Elaine Dickie has suggested for some time.
If the library eliminates paid memberships, it will have to come up with an additional $9,000.
The question is where will that money come from?
While councillors are open to discussing a possible increase in the town’s contribution to make up the for the loss of membership revenue, it would be a much harder sell if they are asked to replace the $58,000 BES contributes.
This all assumes that the library could find a location that is rent-free; more than likely, a new library facility would need to be built.
And that’s something, that town and county councillors, or their constituents would likely not have an appetite for.
But eliminating library membership fees is a much more obtainable goal. Nine thousand dollars isn’t a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, especially when it is divided between two municipalities with budgets in the millions. It would mean county councillors would have to soften their philosophy on user-pay, but it is possible.
In many jurisdictions, this is done through a library tax. While no one wants another tax, it would be a way to generate revenue to eliminate library membership fees and put funds into a reserve for a separate library.
