By Mike Caputo
The trustees met with County Executive Tom Suozzi at the Nassau County Library System in Uniondale to discuss the possibility of forming a centralized library. Library consolidation is one of many ideas Suozzi has pitched in an attempt to cut costs by sharing expenses and services.
In September, Suozzi was successful in striking a deal with local sewage districts, and four of the districts, including Lawrence and Cedarhurst, agreed to merge with the county’s system, which is based in Bay Park. Although the sewage consolidation is not set to begin until 2009, the process is already under way. Lawrence and Cedarhurst officials gladly accepted the consolidation as a way to lighten the economic burden on the villages and their residents.
When the talk of library consolidation grew more serious, trustees made it clear that they were not as willing to participate in Suozzi’s plans. At the meeting, not one audience member — which consisted of trustees and directors from Nassau’s 54 public libraries — raised a hand in favor of library consolidation.
A loss of local control was the component of consolidation that irked library officials the most. If all of the facilities were to be consolidated, there would be one central library board appointed by the county executive.
Ben Eilbott, president of the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library’s Board of Trustees, explained how a centralized system would impact the way libraries serve their individual communities. “We don’t accept consolidation, because it means loss of local control and the identity of each little or large library, which, after all, reflects its community — and each community is different,” Eilbott said. “When you’re in Massapequa, it’s not the same as Hewlett-Woodmere, and when you’re in Glen Cove, it’s different than Baldwin.”
Like the others who gathered last week, Eilbott also fears that the county would cut back library services. For example, a centralized board could move to close libraries on Saturdays or Sundays, reduce their hours or even shut them down altogether. “There is nothing anyone locally could do about that,” Eilbott said. “And of course, that kind of interference and super-domination is something no local library would ever want to tolerate.”
While library officials value local control, nothing is more important than local accountability, according to Joan Lepelstat, co-president of the Peninsula Public Library Board of Trustees. Whether Lepelstat is answering her phone, shopping in a supermarket or dining in a restaurant, library patrons share their concerns with her, ask questions, or just show their appreciation. The lack of a local library board would take that privilege away from patrons, Lepelstat said.
“If the patron doesn’t like something, they let you know about it,” she said. “There is nothing between the board and the patron. If you have a large system, you’re not going to have that.”
Suozzi eventually told the audience that library consolidation was not likely to happen, but he suggested that library officials work hard to reduce costs and share services.
Although public libraries account for $150 million of the county’s $9 billion budget — 1.6 percent of it, or what Suozzi described as “the smallest slice of the pie” — Eilbott and the Hewlett-Woodmere library board acknowledged that economic changes do have to be made. “We agree that there has to be a way that there is a consortium of library trustees or directors to improve the delivery of services by saving money in certain ways,” Eilbott said.
The Nassau Library System, which acts as a consortium for the 54 libraries, has its own board of trustees, but its member facilities still govern themselves. The system already has a procedure in place for libraries to share products and services. If, for example, an Inwood resident has a Peninsula Library card, he or she has access to any other libraries in the county system. Some have restrictions, however, for those who do not live in the respective school districts.
For those who enjoy the local services of their neighborhood libraries, a centralized system would take away many of those privileges, opponents of consolidation said. “We have special collections geared to our population,” Lepelstat said. “We have Sunday hours geared toward our population. You are going to lose a lot of that.”
Sharing already exists in libraries
Library officials scowled at the concept of consolidating all libraries in the county within one centralized board. However, consolidation already occurs within the Nassau Library System, with individual branches sharing products and services.
Residents who possess county public library cards can utilize any of the 54 facilities within the system. For example, Peninsula Public Library card holders can take out materials from the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library and the Valley Stream Public Library. If a book is unavailable at a particular library, it can be reserved and borrowed from another library.
“The system of borrowing books in Nassau County is superior,” said Ben Eilbott president of the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library Board of Trustees. “If you order [a book from another library], you will have it in a day or two.”
Most libraries, like Peninsula, provide virtually full access to their databases and book and media collections to county public library card holders.
Some, like Hewlett-Woodmere, place restrictions on patrons who live outside the school district. Since Hewlett-Woodmere has one of the most modern facilities on the South Shore, patrons from across the county flock to it. Residents of the Peninsula Public Library and Valley Stream Public Library districts tend to inundate Hewlett-Woodmere as well, officials said.
If at least 5 percent of patrons come from outside the taxpaying district, the library is entitled to receive special permission from the State Education Department to apply access restrictions. Hewlett-Woodmere’s “outside” patron rate of about 13 percent is one of the highest in the state.
Hewlett-Woodmere serves more than 20,000 patrons, and outsiders from the Nassau County Public Library system can borrow materials, that are more than a year old.
Although Peninsula’s facilities are much smaller than Hewlett-Woodmere’s, it also gets hit by a different group of outside patrons. These library users come from Far Rockaway and fall under the Queens library system. Since Far Rockaway residents are not part of the Nassau County system, Peninsula is allowed to charge them an annual fee. For non-Nassau residents who want to withdraw books, it costs $180 for use of PPL only and $250 for use of all the libraries in Nassau.
For more information on shared services or general library information, contact Peninsula Public Library at (516) 239-3262 or the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library at (516) 374-1967.
— Mike Caputo
Comments about this story? Mcaputo@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
