OPINION: Washoe County’s Library Director Resigned. The next step? CLOSING All 12 of the County’s Libraries!

Last week’s resignation of the Washoe County Libraries’ Director has presented County Commissioners with a $17-million PER YEAR opportunity.

 The Commissioners have the chance to consolidate our county’s current glut of 130 public libraries. 

• Doing this would pay-off the majority of our county’s $27M budget deficit.

• At the same time, it would provide the Commissioners a way to offer county residents 9X MORE public libraries to choose from than they currently have.

Talk about a win/win!

Washoe County Currently Has 130 Publicly-funded Libraries. 

• Only 12 of them are operated by the County, and they cost taxpayers $/17 Million dollars per year.

• The 118 additional libraries are operated by the Washoe County School District – (one at each school). They cost taxpayers not $1 more than the taxes they’re already paying for our public schools.

Why Our County Libraries Are So EXPENSIVE and So EMPTY.

The majority of the $17million per-year County library budget funds armloads of $68K-to-$85K/year librarians at each of the 12 County library sites. They work 7-hour days with full benefits and lifetime pensions, and have very little library-type work to do. 

The reason? 

• Hardly ANYONE goes to libraries any more: either to sit and read, or even to check-out books.

• Every type of reading material that exists is available, virtually free, on your phone or computer.

• The variety is unlimited and constantly updated, far beyond what any brick-and-mortar library could afford to maintain.

• You can access the online reading material at any time, night or day. 

Before you start clutching your pearls about closing county libraries, be honest with yourself.

In the last 10 years – or more, how many times have YOU gone to a County library to check-out or read a book?… and society’s reading habits have been trending this way for years. 

Typical Library Clientele Have Drastically Changed Over the Years

Library employees admit that they usually have relatively few clients per day, and the majority of them are vagrants. That clientele has no interest in reading books, but they have a very specific focus for visiting our libraries. 

• The vagrants watch unlimited free pornography every day on library computers.

• They have a warm, dry place to eat, sleep, play on their phones, and take stripped-down birdbaths and use drugs in the libraries’ public restrooms.

Our county libraries have become virtual homeless drop-in centers. Education Crusade has observed van-loads of men from the CARES Campus homeless facility being delivered to the Downtown Library on a regular basis. 

Closing the County-funded Libraries is a No-brainer. 

It should be one of the most unarguable and logical decisions that Washoe County Commissioners ever make. 

Our diminished County budget dollars are urgently needed to hire additional law enforcement personnel, to upgrade our infrastructure, to improve our public utilities, protect our drinking water supply, and much more,  

Answering the 2 Most Common Complaints the Commissioners Would Hear If They Close the 12 County-funded Libraries.

1) If the Commissioners close all 12 of the Washoe County-funded libraries, there won’t be any libraries for people to use.

Answer: Not true.

The Commissioners would ONLY be closing the 12 public libraries funded by the County. 

That would still leave the public the 118 libraries located in our 118 public schools. The Commissioners could readily negotiate an arrangement with the Washoe County School District for specific school libraries to be open to the public after the school day, on weekends, and longer hours during the summer.

2) If the County closes its 12 libraries, children will lose out on the many extra recreational programs that are now offered at the libraries, including: art, music, eating, hanging-out with friends, playing dramatic games, and more. 

Answer: Not true.

County Library staff gave a recent public power-point presentation, highlighting most of the activities the libraries actually offer children.  

• Almost ALL of these activities have little or nothing to do with a public library’s primary purpose: providing a place for children and adults to read independently and check out books to take home.

• Our County’s libraries have become de facto recreation centers for a small handful of children: offering entertainment activities similar to privately-funded organizations like the Boys & Girls Clubs. 

But there are a few important differences.

• B&G Clubs and similar private organizations do the recreation-part better and cheaper … much better and much cheaper. 

Private recreation organizations offer MANY more activities, and in superior facilities, because, unlike County libraries – recreational activities are their primary focus and purpose. 

• Private recreation organizations don’t cost taxpayers $17M, or even $1 per-year because they’re privately funded. Most of their staff members make less than half of what County librarians are paid, with minimal benefits. 

• It’s reasonable to pay hard-working recreation supervisors $20/hour, who hustle to keep up with hundreds of children every day. 
• It’s absurd to pay $80K/year to librarians to only occasionally do this same task with a mere handful of children.

• Just ONE of these privately-funded recreation organizations, like the B&G Clubs, serve FAR more kids in one WEEK than all 12 of our County Libraries, combined, serve in one YEAR.

Washoe County Commissioners should immediately move to implement the following steps.

• Close their 12 current libraries, and use the sites to house county agencies and departments – rent-free – that are currently renting public space and need more room.  

• CLOSE the Library Director position, and lay-off or reassign all current library employees.

• Begin negotiations with WCSD to extend library hours at specific schools to make their libraries available to the public, and donate county library book collections to the school libraries.

The Commissioners cannot afford to waste $17M/year on nostalgic-but- unnecessary relics of the past, which is what high-cost county libraries have become.

This is especially true when there are abundant, no-cost options available for both libraries and recreation activities.

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