The most interesting current development in the Nevada County community’s effort to deal with the very real and looming library budget shortfall is an alternative presented by the Truckee Friends of the Library during the public feedback period at the January 4, 2010 working committee meeting. This interesting and well-crafted proposal for the operation of the entire county library system is a variation on the county’s own “options number two and three”  and is now available for review on the county website here.

What are “options number two and three?” These are two of the scenarios being considered by the working committees, as described in the “Evaluation worksheet.” For analytical purposes, this worksheet suggests considering the following eight scenarios (four public, four private/LSSI):

#1 Close PV and BR, No Literacy Program, DR open w/County staff, MH and GV to 25 hours, Truckee to 30
(PV = Penn Valley, BR = Bear River, DR = maybe typo for DF (Doris Foley)?, MH = Madelaine Helling, GV = Grass Valley)

#2 Keep PV and BR open, No Literacy Program, 1 Librarian per Branch, DF run by Friends

#3 Close BR and PV, No Literacy Program, DF run by Friends

#4 Close BR and PV, No Literacy Program, DF run by Friends, 1 Librarian per Branch

#LSSI-1 LSSI as proposed

#LSSI-2, LSSI with MH and GV at 35 hours

#LSSI-3, LSSI at current hours, DF run by Foley

#LSSI-4, LSSI at current hours, DF run by Friends, No Literacy Program

The Truckee FOL proposal presented at the meeting on January 4th represents a ninth alternative, with some highlights as follows:

Keeps library management public
Builds upon and enhances County Budget Options #2 and #3
Meets County Objectives:

Provides long term budget management model per Board order 6/2/09
Able to be implemented immediately
Maintains current library service level within reduced funding, specifically:

Hours, Locations, Programs, Professional Staff

Let’s hope there’s more news about this promising development soon.