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The Goochland Branch of the Pamunkey Regional Library

Barbara Young, one of Goochland’s two members on the Pamunkey Regional Library (PRL) Board of Trustees and its current chair, updated county supervisors on the library at their September 3 meeting.

The PRL is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia, governed by a separate Board of Trustees, appointed for specific terms of office by the Boards of Supervisors of the counties to which it provides library services.  PRL receives contributions from the participating counties but invests its own funds and formulates and approves its own budget. PRL is a consortium of several counties in central Virginia who pool resources to provide their citizens with more materials and services than possible with standalone libraries.

Hanover, with the largest population of PRL members and six branches, has four trustees, others, like Goochland, have two.

The current PRL members are Goochland, Hanover, and King William. King and Queen left PRL at the end of June for financial reasons. A rumored departure by King William was put on hold following the resignation of its county administrator, whose successor asked PRL for the delay. Young said that she and Shoops hope to meet with King William supervisors to stress the advantages of belonging to PRL.

The PRL Trustees, said Young, received a letter of resignation from library director Tom Shepley on June 13, 2024, which it accepted on June 27. The PRL board then appointed PRL staff members Jamie Stoops, as acting library director, and Sherida Bradbry, as acting assistant director, both having decades of service with PRL, and had been deputy directors.

Young commended Shoops and Bradbury for stepping into their new roles and making the transition seamless. The Trustees have set a deadline to name a permanent director by the end of the current fiscal year, June 30, 2025.

PRL staff are working to make the library’s website more user-friendly. Goochland will be a test site for lockers patrons can use for after-hours pickup of library materials.

Stoops reported that even though the Goochland branch is the fourth largest in PRL, it had the second highest summer reading program participation with 1,728 children signed up. She thanked the supervisors for funding extra hours Monday through Thursday, which boosted meeting room usage by 68 percent and increased library visits by 14 percent.  PRL also experienced a 90 percent increase in new borrowers. Stoops said that a more detailed community impact report will be available in the coming months.

Fiscal stewardship is of utmost importance to the Trustees, said Young. When, in September 2023, they were made aware that required audits for FY 22 and 23 had not been completed, they created an ad hoc audit committee that met weekly with PRL staff. The FY22 audit was completed last December, the FY23 audit finished in June, both were deemed "clean" by outside auditors. Work on the FY 24 audit is ahead of schedule with a part-time CPA retained by the Trustees to ensure its completion by November 30, 2024. Goochland’s FY2025 budget indicates that the county contributed $639,926 to PRL, a $45,465, or 7.6 percent increase over the previous years for staff salary increases.

Young also commended PRL business operations manager Ken Catron for helping to get the finance committee, chaired by Barbara Slone, Goochland’s other trustee, back on a fully functional basis. This committee will provide detailed monthly fund balance reports to the Trustees.

Working closely with PRL staff, the Trustees are in the process of updating policies as well as the five-year plan mandated by the Commonwealth to qualify for state funds. The previous plan, which expired at the end of 2020, never completed its stated goals and objectives. Shoops and Bradbury are gathering stakeholder input using surveys, questionnaires, and focus groups to help PRL meet the needs of its users to craft a new five-year plan.

Slone reiterated that there is no censorship at PRL, no books have been or will be “banned”, and that the Trustees do not select materials for its collection. She urged anyone with questions about this to reach out to the Trustees, whose contact information is on the PRL website, https://www.pamunkeylibrary.org/

Library cards are free to all Goochland residents enabling access to the many services and programs offered by PRL, including an extensive collection of audio and eBooks that can be borrowed online.