Library Closure: One for the Books

Jeff Green | May 19, 2011

Editorial by Jeff Green

A month ago, Claudette Richardson, the Chair of the Library Board, a volunteer position, was asked if the board is currently considering closing any branches.

“Not to my knowledge”, she said.

So even though Ms. Richardson invited a number of library users from Ompah to the April library board meeting, it came as something as a surprise when, in the context of considering the request for the reinstatement of the lost two hours a week for the Ompah branch, as had been requested by the Ompah library users, a motion was made and passed to close the Ompah branch instead.

The closing is the first branch closure since the Frontenac and Kingston libraries amalgamated in 1998.

It marks a formal turning point. Until now, despite two reports that lean heavily towards branch closures, and the documented concerns of some members of the board and staff, the founding organizing principle of the old Frontenac Library has held: the local townships provided the space and paid for the lights, heat and upkeep, and the library provided the materials for borrowing, and staffing for the branches.

All this changed when, on a simple motion from the floor, the library board closed a branch. The library board mediates a partnership between the City of Kingston, Frontenac County and the local townships that all contribute financially to the KFPL, yet neither Frontenac County nor North Frontenac Council were consulted before the branch was closed.

It should not be that simple to close a library branch.

One would think that before closing a branch, a staff report would be presented to the board with specific reasons for the branch to close at this time, but that did not happen.

Instead of closing the branch, the board could have asked staff to prepare a report outlining the savings that a closure will bring, but they did not do that either.

This is not really the way a municipally accountable organization should have acted.

Ultimately, the library board has the right to close the Ompah branch. They had the right to say that the cost of providing service for a population of 500 people is too high for a library system that serves a population of 200,000 people to manage.

But the board did not make this argument to the public or to any of their partners. They simply acted on an impulse that has been in place for years and has become self-justifying over time. They did not demonstrate that the Ompah branch is a burden to the system and how much that burden amounts to, in real dollars.

In other words, they did not show what benefits, if any, will come the decision to close the branch. This leaves them open to the suggestion that they closed the branch simply because they don’t like it, and because they are fed up with hearing from the Ompah library users.

They also sent a message to politicians and library users in other Frontenac townships, who pay the facility costs of the branches, because the closing of the Ompah branch is inexorably tied to the decision by North Frontenac Council to upgrade the Plevna branch two years ago.

The message to the townships that is the when you invest in the branch in one community, the branch in a neighbouring community is doomed.

There are four branches in Central Frontenac and the board has indicated they would like to see a new branch in Sharbot Lake. For years, people from Arden, Mountain Grove and Parham have opposed any plans by Central Frontenac Council to build a new branch in Sharbot Lake, on the grounds that it would cost them their local branch.

The KFPL board has given a form and substance to that fear.