MARTINEZ — Library playing cards, guide checkouts and grownup literacy packages have surged throughout Contra Costa County — breaking quite a few division data, regardless of being supplied — freed from cost — by the lowest-funded Bay Space library system of its sort.
The library’s proposed $45.6 million price range is likely one of the smallest pots throughout the $7.1 billion that will probably be allotted countywide within the subsequent fiscal yr, and its companies come at nearly no value. This funding is divvied as much as all 26 branches, that are situated in 18 cities, 5 unincorporated communities and one juvenile corridor, in addition to a slew of different on-line and neighborhood assets.
Whereas the division’s price range is absolutely balanced and doesn’t function at a deficit, county officers mentioned its small workers and lack of funding is hampering ongoing efforts to make enhancements and broaden assets, reminiscent of restoring Sunday hours.
Alison McKee, who took the helm as county librarian in 2021, mentioned Contra Costa lags behind the 4 different county-run library departments within the Bay Space when measuring native earnings per capita, which divides whole authorities funding by service space inhabitants.
Since 1992, county voters have rejected 4 separate poll measures for added library funding, which require a supermajority to go. One proposal to hike taxes by lower than a dime misplaced by fewer than 1,000 votes.
Presently, library operations are funded nearly fully by native property taxes — income that’s capped at 1% of a property’s full assessed worth, in any other case generally known as the “ad valorem” fee. Contra Costa County then allocates 1.5% of that sliver to the library division.
McKee didn’t deliver up this historical past to ask for extra money As county executives reviewed department-level price range proposals for the upcoming fiscal yr, McKee pointed to library workers’s monitor document of creating ends meet with modest quantities of money.
“This is our reputation in libraries in the Bay Area — we do a lot with very little,” McKee instructed the Board of Supervisors. She mentioned one “silver lining” has been the partnerships which have grown with different native governments and charitable organizations, divvying up accountability for issues like constructing upkeep and prolonged hours of operation past the county’s 40-hour weekly baseline.
Contra Costa’s library system has by no means overspent its allotted funds. For the reason that division is rarely 100% absolutely staffed, any budgeted however unspent {dollars} go right into a devoted library fund, which can be utilized to amass new collections, in addition to fund facility tasks and different one-time expenditures.
McKee mentioned that versatile fund stability is crucial to afford all different non-staffing prices, particularly as salaries and advantages for the division’s roughly 250 full-time county workers positions account for almost 80% of the division’s expenditures. Particularly, the leftover money has helped gasoline the $22.5 million plan to construct a brand new, 21,000-square-foot library as a part of the transit-oriented improvement deliberate for the Pittsburg-Bay Level BART station — situated within the largest unincorporated neighborhood in Contra Costa County that lacks simple library entry.
Nonetheless, value financial savings doesn’t make up for the truth that workers continues to be unfold too skinny, McKee mentioned, which has hindered efforts to revive Sunday hours past the self-service pilot program that was rolled out on the Harmony department in December.
McKee reported final week that 28% of all households in Contra Costa County use a library card no less than every year, which is the very best fee of market attain for the reason that metric was established in 2017.
Digital checkouts are additionally up 239% in comparison with charges earlier than the pandemic — a rise that McKee mentioned has helped compensate for the continuing lag in bodily visits to libraries in recent times.
Nonetheless, library patrons proceed to devour non-digital media. The division reported that the variety of bodily checkouts was greater than double the speed of e-books. Participation within the county’s grownup literacy program, Venture Second Probability, additionally surged 25% this yr, which McKee mentioned is the very best fee on document.
Along with ongoing tech upgrades in any respect department places, accessibility enhancements and tweaks to streamline on-line renewals, she additionally pointed to the primary anniversary of the Rolling Reader, which celebrated its first yr on the highway in November of 2023. Versus a bookmobile, Contra Costa’s library division receives roughly $215,000 in Measure X {dollars} every year to drive this early literacy outreach van to low-income communities. By delivering youngsters’s books, early literacy instruments and STEM actions, McKee mentioned the purpose is to assist households broaden their very own dwelling libraries.
California is the most important benefactor of the “grants to states” IMLS program, which distributes roughly $60 million yearly. A part of that cash supplies free on-line subscriptions to the New York Occasions by way of all public libraries within the state.
Whereas the division is anticipating that this sponsored entry might fizzle by July, libraries in Contra Costa County plan to make use of cash in its devoted fund stability to foot the invoice.
As state and federal funding ranges for all library packages stay unsure, workers lauded the quite a few partnerships throughout its 26 branches, the place a spread of wellness groups, social staff, veteran companies, cellular well being clinics and different public companies function at library places.
Supervisor John Gioia echoed that reward.
“The big issue we always face is, how do we try to obtain more funding for libraries across the county?” Gioia mentioned. “That’s always been a challenge.”
