Made up primarily of library board members and volunteers, the task force was formed last year to look at four issues: library funding, services and roles, facilities, and technology. Specifics of the recommendations have not been worked out, but the task force hopes to have them ready for the commissioners by October.
While any tax or regional library construction would have to be approved by the commissioners, the task force believes both are needed because of the growing demand for library services and the shaky finances and limited facilities at several of the county's libraries.
Only five county municipalities support their libraries through a dedicated library tax.
"If nothing else, we need room for collection growth, and we desperately need to replace outdated materials in our libraries," county library director Barbara Webb said at the Wednesday meeting. "Only $2.78 per capita is being spent per year on library materials in this county." In 1994, the county's libraries received a total of $5 million in support from the state, the county and municipalities.
Under a consolidated system, a governing board would oversee the libraries. Individual libraries could opt out of the system, but would be subject to reduced funding if a countywide tax were adopted. Under the present federated system, each library has its own administrative board.
The regional centers would provide some relief for the overtaxed district center in Exton, task force members said.
One regional center would be recommended for the northern part of the county in the Route 100 corridor, one would be in the western end, near the
intersection of Routes 10 and 30, and the third would be in the southwest, near Routes 1 and 41.
"Some of our libraries are so small that they cannot support a high school curriculum, for example," said Webb, who served as informal chairwoman of the meeting. The regional centers would contain about 15,000 square feet, several times the size of some of the municipal libraries.
Webb emphasized, however, that the group was not recommending that regional centers replace the local libraries.
"That's certainly not our intent," she added. "That may occur over time, but I have seen situations where small local libraries have flourished near larger regional centers by specializing. They can become popular materials centers or doors to preschool education."
The county already has been approached by the Owen J. Roberts School District about using the high school library as the northern regional center.
"We have had only one meeting on that, so we don't know if it would be
size-sufficient or not," Webb said.
