Today I received a nice letter from Delegate Sickles (below). I am glad to hear steps are being taken, but I would still like to know whether Virginia Code § 42.1-33 (Power of local governments to establish and support libraries) holds an opportunity for additional revenue to support FCPL.
Blanche,
The Library is required, in order to receive state funding, to not charge
fees for reference services, issuance of a library card, or charge to loan a
book/materials.
However, the library is taking some steps to raise some badly needed
funding. It has raised the daily late fee for both children and adults to
30 cents per day, up from 10 cents and 25 cents respectively. They are also
charging patrons $1 to look up a library card (which staff did 400,000 times
last year). They are also charging $20 to proctor a test. Finally, the FCPL
Board is considering charging room rental fees, something that has been done
in the past, but costs staff time to administer. We stopped charging when I
was on the board because of the hassle.
Best,
Mark
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Keep up the good work, Blanche. I get the feeling that Mark Sickles is probably feeling besieged, but you helped remind him that libraries are worth fighting for.
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