Red Bins Everywhere! Book challenges too.

Yesterday was an interesting day. What appeared to be a frivolous waste of time on the part of the county finance committee actually garnered yes votes and now moves to the full county board. The resolution  seeks to persuade libraries to physically restrict adult collections from children's access. Here's what you should know about this matter:

• Collection policies are under the control of municipal or joint library boards, i.e. the KPL Board and the Community Library Board. No one else.
• The county library tax is levied on municipalities that don't pay KPL or CL directly. It's reimbursement for past use of our library by people who live elsewhere in Kenosha County. We only get money for actual use. It's not a subscription service. If people don't like our services, they don't use them. People like our services.
• The Kenosha County Library System, over which the county has some measure of control in that the county executive appoints the board members, asks the county to levy reimbursement taxes. The system also collects money from the state and county to support delivery and technology services. The county does not pay for collections.
• Resolutions are non-binding. They are only suggestions. 

The full board of county supervisors will meet on February 20th, the same day of the KPL Board meeting, so I will not be able to speak in person on this issue but I will craft a statement to send to the media. If you know any eloquent library supporters (there are many!) please alert them to this issue and ask them to speak up on our behalf either through letters to the editor, phone calls or emails to their county supervisors, or in person at the county board meeting. Thanks!

This week I had the opportunity to tour South Central Library System before Library Legislative Day in Madison. I snapped some pictures of their sorting area to share with you. That's a lot of red bins! And no, they don't have sorting systems. Everything is sorted by hand.

Thanks to Aaron who continues to provide a photographic timeline of construction progress.

Here's what it looked like Thursday.

Happy weekend, everyone. Hope we see lots of sunshine!

Barb