Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Warsaw Community Public Library Board of Trustees continued discussions about a reciprocal borrowing covenant involving the Bell Memorial Public Library during a meeting Monday.
At the board's October meeting, Library Director Joe Fox brought up the possibility of establishing reciprocal borrowing covenants with Kosciusko County libraries. Through this, residents of areas without library service could purchase a nonresident card from a participating library and gain access to other participating libraries for no additional fees.
Initially, this conversation started with North Manchester Public Library representatives contacting Fox about the idea following prior discussions with former WCPL Director Heather Barron.
"I entertained that, I brought that to the board, and I think we decided that a reciprocal covenant with a library in another county is not a great place to start," said Fox. "But within days of that particular conversation, the director at Bell Memorial, which of course is in-county, said, 'Hey, do you want to enter into a reciprocal covenant?'"
Board Treasurer Ben Rice said while he wanted more library access countywide, he wanted to know why the library would want to do something like this. Board member Barbara Beck asked Fox if BMPL was part of Evergreen, which is a consortium of public libraries that share a common catalog. Fox said they're just now onboarding onto Evergreen, while WCPL is not part of Evergreen.
"This is a sticking point for a lot of people," said Board member Jill Beehler. "The fact that they don't pay (Wayne Township) taxes, so they'd have to pay the $116. I wonder too what those people are going to say when they find out that somebody got one for $60, and they have to pay the $116."
Board Secretary Cathi Zdenek said she currently wasn't seeing what the covenant's advantages were for WCPL and noted the library was already offering library cards to every student in Warsaw Schools.
"That's Claypool, and Silver Lake and Leesburg," said Beck.
The board tabled a decision on the reciprocal covenant with BMPL until their December meeting.
In other business, the board discussed an update on the bid process for replacing the library's dry sprinkler system. No bids were submitted for the project at the board's October meeting. Fox said he and Facilities Director Jim Price are currently looking at potentially splitting the project into two different bids, as each level of the library has a different sprinkler system.
Fox also mentioned he was contacted by Plymouth Public Library's director about a free-standing book drop-off they were getting rid of. Several WCPL board members stated they've received a lot of patron comments regarding WCPL's current book drop-off, which is directly connected to the library and requires patrons having to exit their vehicles just to drop off books.
The board approved purchasing the book drop-off from Plymouth and asked Fox to see if he and his staff could find a way for it to be immediately used.
The board also:
• Approved the library's closure for the holidays from Dec. 24-26.
• Heard the library is in talks with a Grace College student regarding an unpaid internship.
• Tabled an appointment from the Board of Trustees to the Warsaw Parks and Recreation Board to December. Beehler is currently the WCPL representative for the parks board, but can only serve one more year.
The board's next meeting is at 4 p.m. Monday, Dec. 14.
