Library Report

 

Goochland Branch Library

At the December 3 meeting of the Goochland Supervisors, our county’s representatives on the Board of Trustees of the Pamunkey Regional Library (PRL), Chair Barbara Young, and Trustee Barbara Slone, presented a quarterly update.

Earlier this year, Young and Slone reported that the PRL director had resigned and outlined changes the Trustees planned to make to the organization. At that time, they introduced Jamie Shoop as the acting library director and Sherida Bradby as acting assistant library director.

Among the issues the PRL board faced were several tardy annual audits. As PRL is funded with tax dollars, accounting for use of that money is vital.

Slone said that the annual PRL audit for FY24, which ended on June 30, was completed early and was clean. PRL was the first of Hanover County’s financial partners to complete its 2024 audit.

She commended Stoops, Bradby, and PRL business operations manager Ken Katron for their work on the project.

Slone said that PRL does not plan to request a budget increase from Goochland County for the next fiscal year. PRL did request additional funds from King William County to increase its weekly library hours from 44 to 52.

PRL has retained the services of an accountant with expertise in public financing to assist with finances and audits. As of October 31, the PRL fund balance is approximately $4.5 million, which had been earmarked for a new administration building, which was never approved. The Trustees believe that money should be used for library capital projects. A minimum balance of $500k will be kept as a rainy-day fund.

Slone said that the trustees are still investigating how the large fund balance was accumulated. She said that PRL has some very generous donors.

Jonathan Lyle, District 5, asked if the large fund balance would affect the amount PRL requested from Goochland. Slone said that it is an entirety of PRL funds, which are managed by Hanover County. Lyle said he wholeheartedly supports PRL and wants to ensure that it is adequately funded.

Stoop explained that the cost of “shared services” provided by PRL is split on a per capita basis, among its member counties. Those services include the purchase of books and other materials; subscriptions; supplies; contractual agreements.  Goochland is responsible for 16 percent of the shared services and 12 percent of $48k cost of hotspots. Hanover pays 72 percent and King William 12 percent. Personnel at library branches are funded by the county where they are located.

Young quashed the “firestorm” rumor that PRL planned to discontinue issuing “hotspots,” devices that provide Wi-Fi to patrons with no access to broadband. When the trustees began to review the PRL budget, the $48k budget for hotspots was discussed to see if that was a service PRL should continue to provide for its patrons. That amount covers maintenance and subscriptions. Trustees decided to talk to their county officials about the matter.

Young said that Goochland County administrator Vic Carpenter reminded her that there are still many places across Goochland not served by broadband making hotspots a vital library service.

At the November meeting of the PRL trustees, hotspots were discussed, Young said. A suggestion that PRL charge for use of hotspots “did not go over well”.  A motion was made and approved at that meeting that the hotspot policy will be continued and revisited in 2027, by which time broadband access may be more widely available. In short, THE PRL HOTSPOT POLICY WILL REMAIN UNCHANGED until at least 2027.

Hotspots may be checked out, one per patron, for fourteen days at a time. They have no data limit and use Verizon and T Mobile signals, which work well in the Goochland service area.

The PRL trustees are working to update policies, which Young said will be a long but necessary process.

At the direction of the Trustees, Stoop met with branch managers to compile a project “wish and needs list”, which includes replacing aging laptops; updating network equipment; purchase of enhanced marketing and outreach materials; museum passes; digital access to local news; new early learning stations; a new delivery van; and AEDs at all branches.

“The disbursement of these funds will be thoughtfully made as we strive to enrich and enhance our libraries for the community,” said Slone.

Goochland is part of a pilot program for library lockers that allow patrons to pick up on hold library materials after hours by retrieving a code on their phone.

Young said that the Trustees decided to look at PRL staffing last September to make sure that there were no holes, or redundancies. Stoop asked the Trustees to hold off until PRL knows if King William will be leaving PRL.  

The was brief discussion about a potential departure from PRL by King William County, which will be decided by that county’s officials. For what are believed to be financial challenges, King and Queen County left PRL earlier this year.

Carpenter said that he has had positive discussions with King William officials, some of whom are new to the job, and said they are not, at this time, going forward with the departure, but that could change. A meeting has been scheduled in January to hopefully “nail” this decision down so PRL can move forward.

Current holders of PRL library cards have received notice that renewals must be done in person showing proof of residence in Goochland. Stoops explained that the procedure will ensure that only those who live in counties belonging to PRL will have active library access.

Go to https://www.pamunkeylibrary.org/ for more information.