Cheryl Dobbs, Director of Greenwood Public Library
cdobbs@greenwoodlibrary.us
Last week we began communicating in earnest about an upcoming change to the way Greenwood Public Library issues library cards. In short, we are being forced to come into compliance with state law by issuing free cards only to residents of our taxing district. We had not previously enforced this law, instead offering free library cards to anyone living in Johnson County. This practice would not have been a problem had there been a reciprocal agreement with Johnson County Public Library, but there is no such agreement. During the many years this practice continued, anyone in Johnson County could use our library free of charge, whereas the residents of our taxing district had to pay to use the Johnson County Public Library system. Bringing our library into compliance on this issue has been challenging on all fronts. The most confusing part of this change is understanding the boundaries of our district. The borders of our taxing district are not equal to the city boundaries, the school district, or the service area of the Greenwood police and fire district. Over the years, Greenwood has grown through annexation, but our taxing district did not expand along with it. We have posted a map of our district in our lobby, and in addition you may go to the County Assessor’s website and type your address in to see if you are paying taxes to the County Library or to the Greenwood Public Library.
One misperception I have heard from several patrons is the idea that we are charging the non-resident fee as a way to get out of our financial troubles. Nothing could be further from the truth. This fee exists at all Indiana Public Libraries, and is meant to allow non-residents to qualify for services by paying an amount equal to what our residents pay through property taxes. The State is requiring us to comply and we will. Whatever monies are collected for these cards will go into our operating fund. Our first concern is helping our patrons through this transition and getting our library into compliance with the law.
The conversations we have all been having about boundaries, taxing districts, and non-resident fees are difficult, but by far the most painful part of this transition is telling long time patrons that we are not their library anymore. It is awful, and it feels very personal. Some of these patrons have been coming here for decades. Their children know our storytime librarians by name, their art projects are on our walls, and they know right where to go for their favorite books. Some of these patrons found their last job with our help on the public access computers. Some of these patrons are our volunteers, our donors, and our friends. We are heartbroken to enforce this law but determined to bring GPL into compliance with the law and make the hard decisions necessary to save it. We have a plan to carry us forward now, thanks to our financial analyst, and we have cut our budget back drastically to make recovery possible. We take full responsibility for the situation we find ourselves in, and are now making good decisions with expert advice. If you have questions, please ask me (cdobbs@greenwoodlibrary.us). I appreciate all of the patrons who have brought their questions (and sometimes even their anger) to me. Our patrons (all of them, resident and non-resident) deserve answers. Excellent customer service and personal attention have always been what people expected of the Greenwood Public Library and we will weather this adversity with those values still firmly at the top. We intend to preserve this library, this community resource, and we intend to succeed. Thank you for continuing the conversation.