Complaints, loan program rules compel city to rescind card
fee
San Juan Bautista officials have rescinded a library card fee
that angered some patrons and volunteers and made the Luck Memorial
Library ineligible to participate in a statewide library
partnership.
Complaints, loan program rules compel city to rescind card fee
San Juan Bautista officials have rescinded a library card fee that angered some patrons and volunteers and made the Luck Memorial Library ineligible to participate in a statewide library partnership.
Saying that the city’s original plan to raise more money for the cash-strapped library “backfired,” library assistant Dee Dee Hanania said she is “thrilled” that the city council recently voted to overturn a 2007 decision to charge non-San Juan residents a $20 library card fee.
“We knew right away [that charging fees would upset some patrons] but the previous city manager was trying to raise some funds,” said Hanania, who has worked at the library for 10 years. “Our numbers went down and it was bad news.”
In a report to the council, City Manager Steve Julian said the intent of his predecessor’s plan was “no doubt to have non-city residents contribute to the support of the library by paying a modest fee” for library services. However, the action had the “clearly unintended consequence” of reducing revenue to the library in the form of voluntary donations.
Charging for the privilege of using basic services such as checking out books also disqualified the Luck Library from being a part of California’s inter-library loan program, which allows patrons of any participating library to request books from any other library in the state – a particularly valuable resource for small libraries such as San Juan’s.
“I suspect there were some folks who live outside of the corporate city limits who have always considered themselves part of San Juan Bautista who quite frankly had their nose bent out of shape” by the decision to charge for a non-resident library card fee, Julian said. “If I were in their position, I would feel that way, too. They contributed time and materials; I suspect there were some hurt feelings. Hopefully, if there were some folks who were offended, they would know that we want them back.”
Mary Genesy, past president and current member of San Juan’s Library Auxiliary, which helps fund the purchase of books and materials through fundraising, said her group had been working for a year-and-a-half to have the library card fee cancelled.
“I’m sure it’s going to be a very big help” to no longer charge non-San Juan residents for a library card. “It shut out some of our county friends and neighbors who live a couple of blocks from us” but were not within the actual city limits.
Genesy noted that even Hanania would not have been able to get a free library card because she lives in Aromas.
Prior to the city’s decision to charge a library card fee, the state of California paid San Juan’s $6,500 membership fee in the Monterey Bay Area Cooperative Library System (MOBAC), the local branch of the inter-library loan system.
Repealing the library card fee has reestablished Luck Library’s eligibility for that program, Julian said, mentioning that the city council didn’t realize at the time that establishing the card fee would have such wide-ranging impact.
“It has been brought to my attention that financial and other donations have fallen off, and that volunteer support – which is vital to any library, including San Juan Bautista’s – has also seen a decline,” Julian wrote in a report to the council. “This can be attributed in large part to the library card charge, which was apparently viewed as an affront to nearby residents of the county who volunteered time and made regular financial and other donations to support ‘their’ library.”
With San Juan having such a small library, Genesy said regaining membership in MOBAC can help bring patrons back to the library.
“We don’t have a lot of money,” she said. “Now we can borrow the books back and forth and get requests for our customers that come in. That’s a big help for people who want to research something.”
The library, Hanania said, is a gathering place for the community, so it is essential to make it a customer-friendly place. She said she and some volunteers plan to put a notice at Windmill Market and the city’s post office notifying people that there is no longer a charge for library cards.
“People are just angry about it and didn’t want to come back,” she said. “We want people to come back.”
The Library Auxiliary, which has 17 dues-paying members, has held a chicken barbecue each September to raise money for book purchases. While it traditionally has brought in approximately $4,000, according to Genesy, the most recent event brought in just $1,500.
To help increase funds, “we’re trying all kinds of things” such as having a quilt raffle and putting a book stall in Priscilla’s Special Stuff store downtown, from which new books will be sold, she said.
“San Juan is really strapped for money, and libraries, unfortunately, are usually at the end of the budget list,” Genesy said.
