Fact vs. Fiction: WHat's true and what's not?

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The Board of Supervisors decided to hold a closed meeting July 8, 2024 to discuss PRL and provided the following reasoning: “Motion to Convene Closed session in accordance with Section 2.2-3711 (A) (29) of the Code of Virginia because discussion in an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the Board with the Pamunkey Regional Library system.” The Board then came out of the closed meeting into open session and immediately made a motion to withdraw from PRL with zero mention about what was discussed in the closed meeting that led to the motion to pull out of the regional system. The agenda posted made ZERO mention about discussion of withdrawal from the PRL system with no public input.

https://kingwilliamcova.portal.civicclerk.com/

As mentioned at a town hall meeting held by 2nd district representative, Ben Edwards, at 7pm on July 10, 2024, the Board had not done a cost analysis or any research before the motion was made and passed. At the same meeting, County Administrator, Percy Ashcroft, equated the Board’s cost analysis extent to doing some math on the back of a napkin. 

Board of Supervisors Chair, Lindsay Robinson, claims, “By operating our own county library, we feel we can improve services, and do it cheaper and more efficiently.”

https://www.kwc.gov/DocumentCenter/View/3212/BOS-Looking-Ahead-to-New-Library

The main benefit of a regional library system for rural counties is cost savings. Hanover County currently contributes $3,860,396 (for six branches), Goochland county contributes $634,380 (for one branch), and King William contributes $602,907 (for two branches). The Board is claiming they can have a $5,959,241 million dollar library system with over 200,000 physical items, over 1,500,000 digital items and nine branches for less than $600,000. This is mathematically impossible.

https://www.pamunkeylibrary.org/custom/web/content/FY2025%20Approved%20Budget%20v6.pdf  

If we compare numbers to the nearest respectable Independent Library, Essex Public Library:

In 2023, Essex County’s (population 10,849) independent library’s budget was $404,105 with a per capita cost of $37.25 (supporting only one branch, as opposed to the two that King William’s funding supports)

In 2023, Pamunkey Regional Library’s (population 157,275) budget was $6,068,025 with a per capita cost of $38.58. King William's (population 19,030) budget for TWO libraries was $602,907 with a per capita cost of $33.85. 

In Summary, being a part of Pamunkey Regional Library allows King William to operate a library for $100,000 less PER LIBRARY with the added benefit of countless more resources.

https://www.lva.virginia.gov/lib-edu/ldnd/libstats/docs/2023/expend_2023.pdf

https://www.pamunkeylibrary.org/custom/web/content/FY2024%20Budget-Approved%20June%2028%202023.pdf

https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-counties/va/king-william-county-population

Per data provided from PRL statistics, from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, King William libraries had:

• 61,368 books lent
• 63,649 people walk through their doors

While PRL’s collection has many books to choose from, they also have movies, music, and electronic content like streaming services, as well as laptops and hotspots. Per data from Pamunkey’s statistics, of the 152 hotspots that are paid for by all counties (Hanover providing the largest percentage in funds), the Upper King William and West Point branches accounted for 42% of total circulation for them. Hardly surprising considering the lack of options for high speed internet in the county.

Your library card allows you to reserve any study or meeting room in all 9 PRL branches for no additional fees.

PRL also has a reciprocal agreement with Henrico County Public Library that allows any PRL card holder to receive a Henrico library card for free. 

You can have any physical resource transferred to the branch of your choice, regardless of where it is in the system. No King William resident has to travel to Hanover to check out an item housed in their libraries. PRL has a delivery system that operates throughout the week and transfers material from branch to branch. If you want a hotspot or Launchpad from Rockville, you place it on hold, and the library notifies you when it’s at your home branch.

You can even have books from across the country sent to your home branch. PRL utilizes Inter-Library Loans to have books from other library systems shipped to PRL where they will be transferred to your home library. 

The Board has repeatedly stated that the new independent library will have better resources and services available for patrons than they currently have with PRL.

Despite this, Board Member, Mary Sue Bancroft, is advising residents on Facebook that they can get library cards from surrounding counties to access electronic resources. Why this would be necessary if—as the Board claims—the new independent library will have better resources than PRL is a mystery.

Something else that is not being addressed is the physical resources that we currently have access to with PRL. Will residents have to travel to Richmond or Chesterfield to get copies of books King William’s independent library can’t afford to provide for you? Will they have to drive to Henrico to pick up a hotspot at one of their libraries?

Another question that remains unanswered: why should any resident that is paying taxes in King William County to support an independent library be forced to go out of their way to obtain a library card from another county, when PRL provides all of that and more and can be accessed at a branch in King William? 

Each county is responsible for providing the buildings for the branches located in their county. Every branch in Hanover is a building that is owned and maintained by Hanover County. No money from King William is going to fund any branch outside of our county.

King William County has not provided a county building for the library, so the location on Sharon Road is rented; the county provides this funding. West Point provides the funding to rent the building for West Point Library.

PRL is not the reason the Upper King William Library is currently in the Sharon Rd location, whose building has not received any major updates since the library moved there. The county, and by extension, the King William Board of Supervisors has chosen not to allocate either funds or a county building for an improved branch. And moving the branch would not require pulling out of PRL, as one has nothing to do with the other. 

An individual at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday, July 22, 2024 stated that King William County only contributed $200,000 to Pamunkey in 2016 and it was unreasonable for the library to ask for over $600,000 now. 

This is false on multiple fronts. King William County contributed $400,000 to PRL in 2016, which accounted for 1.7% of the total budget for that fiscal year. In 2024, the county allotted PRL $602,907...which accounted for 1.7% of the total budget for this fiscal year. 

As every one of us knows, the cost  of everything has increased in the past few years. Why it is reasonable for all other King William agencies to receive increases to offset these cost  but not the library remains a mystery. 

In reply to an email from a concerned resident, Board Vice-Chair, Justin Catlett, stated that since he moved to the county in 2013, he has not seen any changes with the library. His statement could be true; he might not have taken the time to look into the advancement of services that PRL has been able to achieve in King William. However, just because Mr. Catlett is unaware of these changes does not mean they did not happen. 

Here is a list of some of the improvements/additions to services and resources that have happened in the past 10 years at King William's libraries: 

• Addition of new digital platforms: Hoopla and Kanopy
• Updated website and catalog - new catalog embedded digital content for easy collection browsing
• Faster WiFi - specifically at UKW a few years ago
• New furniture at UKW – meeting room chairs, collaboration room tables and chairs, as well as new furniture in main areas of the branch
• Early Literacy stations at all locations -children’s computers with educational games
• Summer Reading Program - online signup and app option introduced for ease of use
• 1000 Books Before Kindergarten - new program to promote early literacy
• New formats - Vox books (new read along type),  Launchpad tablets, Playaway Views - small video players for kids with educational games
• Mobile Hotspot and Chromebook lending
• Online meeting and study room reservation software
• Monitors and projectors added in meeting and collaboration rooms 
• Self checkout machine
• Scanning stations added - scan documents, photo negatives 
• 3D Printers - patrons can submit 3D print jobs through website and have it delivered to any location 
• New addition this year - Cricut machines for crafting programs
• NoveList Select - embeds NoveList content in the catalog for easy access to reviews, read-a-likes
• Mobile printing - can send print job to any branch location from phone, laptop

Members of the Board claim King William residents have complained that they don’t have a say in the kinds of programs the library puts together; though they have failed to present examples of this ever happening.

Both the Upper King William and West Point branches welcome and highly encourage patrons to let them know what type of programs they would like to see at the library. If you have any ideas for programs, you are welcome to call, email, or visit the library and speak with a staff member so they can relay your ideas to the manager or programmer. Plenty of library programs in the past have come from ideas from enthusiastic patrons and library staff welcome the suggestions.