As local leaders continue talks on the future of the San Benito County Free Library, they face two big challenges: There isn’t nearly enough of an existing revenue stream to fund the current library’s operations – let alone a bigger one – while the community must find a new home for the library to support future growth and technological change.
When it comes to the revenue streams for operations, the options are relatively black and white. Residents and decision makers have broached such traditional ideas as creating a special library district, increasing sales taxes, charging nominal fees to those who can afford them or partnering with some sort of outside entity – whether it be from the private, public or nonprofit sectors.
Because a new library may appear so daunting to realistically consider at this point, especially just on the heels of the recession and with a host of competing tax proposals coming, the dilemma is clear: How can an economically distraught community build a modern, flexible, technology-infused library?
The first part of that step – finding a new location – doesn’t have to be so complicated, because library supporters and political leaders have the option of considering whether existing properties might work better and cost less than a new structure.
Although local veterans groups in October agreed with the council to take on management of the city’s Veterans Memorial Building – and they should be given the opportunity to succeed in doing so – that site appears on the surface to be an ideal location for a future library.
Without knowing definitively whether all of the necessary logistics would work out, it is centrally located in downtown Hollister; about three times the size of the current library; features the hall’s open space that would allow for flexible layouts, along with an array of rooms on two levels; and it went through a relatively recent, $4.4 million renovation about a decade ago.
Think Veterans Memorial Library.
Whether it is the veterans hall or another existing structure, the point is, library supporters and political leaders should do an extensive examination of current buildings as a first option for the future library as opposed to assuming the community needs to build a new castle.
If that direction doesn’t work out for whatever reason, the next best option is a partnership with the schools. The local school districts really should be more involved with the library discussion, and a partnership between one or more of the districts and the library system only seems logical. After all, the timing makes sense, as the Hollister School District and San Benito High School District are both preparing to place separate $39 million facility bonds on a 2014 ballot. The new library, perhaps, might make sense on the outskirts of a renovated San Benito High School campus.
As when planning what to put inside an ever-changing, modern library, leaders must think about non-traditional solutions first when choosing the new location.
