Cache County government did a feasibility study this past year to decide whether to consolidate into a county-wide system. While there are difficult issues to overcome, the benefits far outweigh the risks. In the long run, patrons can benefit from the increased number of books and materials available, staff can benefit from an increased network for training and support. It just may move literacy forward in some exciting ways.
Logan City remains supportive of the creation of a Cache County Library System. Jay Monson, chairman of the Countywide Library System Committee, says that “the Logan City Council and mayor hope that the Cache County Council and administration will lead in this endeavor. The beginnings of a system would certainly be a major step forward and far better than no system at all.” Jay talks about a quasi-countywide system as a possible first step. That’s a great idea imho. There is a lot of info on their blog.
Though the task may seem insurmountable at first blush, Cache County should think about how to make it work even though they may not start on opening day with all the pieces that other library systems have taken years to develop. That, too, will come.
Here is a response from the Chair of the County Council.
“Library service is also a “continuing concern” for Petersen.
“I think most of the councilmembers agree that moving to a full-fledged countywide library system at this time isn’t prudent given the financial situation,” he said. “But if the goal is to improve library service for county residents, I think we’d like to look at some alternatives — some alternative arrangements that would be perhaps less ambitious than a countywide library system right now.”
Those could include interlocal agreements between the county and municipalities or just between municipalities, Petersen said.
“The problem is that there are just some parts of the county that don’t have very adequate library service,” he added. “I mean, there are some people who have virtually no library service, and the hope is that maybe some arrangements could be structured that would allow those people access to libraries.”
Source: Herald Journal January 26, 2009