- By Dan Veaner
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Lansing Community Library
Darfler says the board now has a year to meet state requirements including hiring a professional librarian, installing and training volunteers on the Polaris (library management) system, and mounds of paperwork. Even though voters agreed to pay a tax to support the library, the first installment of that money won't come until October. Originally library officials thought they were obligated to have everything in place as soon as the charter was granted, but they have learned they have a year before all the requirements must be met. That takes the pressure off the board, and allows them to proceed without taking out a loan to bridge the gap between being chartered and getting their funding.
"We're kind of like the deer in the headlight," Darfler says. "But a much calmer deer. We're going to get there."
But that doesn't mean the board has been sitting on its hands. Two weeks after the vote passed the paperwork for a charter was sent to Albany. Before that state representatives had visited the library, and encouraged the Friends of the Library to proceed. "They sat with us and said, 'If you've done this with no money and no paid staff, you will be able to go ahead and do this.'," Dafrler recalls. That gave us the impetus to go ahead with the election."
The board is also sorting out all the regulations a chartered library must follow to make sure they meet every requirement. "We originally thought we could not be open without paid staff once we became public," Darfler says. "That put us into a panic, because a person is bound to get sick or have to go to a meeting. There is an exception for small libraries. As long as we have a volunteer trained to use the Polaris system we can be open. So now part of the training for our volunteers will be on how to use Polaris. If someone doesn't feel comfortable using it we'll just make sure they are coupled with someone who can use it."
Now she says that the new library board and the Friends of the Library are splitting into two distinct entities. Friends will remain as supporters and fundraisers, but the administration of the library and its programs will fall to the new board. A search committee is already working on Civil Service requirements and job descriptions for the new librarian, and for a possible part-time aid.
The aid was actually cut from the budget, along with money for new books, in order to get the tax rate down to 15 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value before the December vote. Library officials said at that time they could get grants to pay for books to grow the library's collection. But there is a possibility that county money will be made available that could pay for a part time assistant as well as other things like books, program expenses, etc.
Darfler says that Lansing's County Legislator Mike Sigler will be asking the Tompkins County Legislature to add the Lansing library to the independent libraries in the county that receive funding. This year independent libraries in Groton, Newfield, Dryden and Trumansburg each got $28,000 from the County. Sigler plans to ask for retroactive funding for the Lansing library now that it is chartered. That might amount to as much as $20,000. Darfler says Sigler will also ask the legislature to add annual funding to the Lansing library without cutting aid to the other four libraries.
"We're assuming that we're going to get on that boat," Darfler says cautiously. "How can they not? It is making all the other libraries nervous because libraries really depend on this money and they think if Lansing comes on are they going to split the same pot five ways instead of four. What Mike Sigler is asking for is to add the fifth library without thinning out the pot."
As all this is falling into place library volunteers have been maintaining library operations and programs. "We have three programs coming up," Darfler notes. "We have one on antique bicycles, one on gardening from The Plantsmen Nursery, and one on long term care insurance from the Office of the Aging. Once we hire a librarian we'd like to have a big welcome party to meet the librarian and thank everybody. And there is a still life art show up now."
But behind the scenes the main order of business is to sort out the regulations and wade through the paperwork. Darfler says that a full time librarian will likely be hired in September. The librarian will be responsible for writing grants, maintaining the collection, and managing volunteers, among other responsibilities. The Triad Foundation is providing a $20,000 grant to install hardware and software for the Polaris computer system, which will not only be used to manage library assets, but alto to hook into the Fingerlakes Library System, which the newly chartered library will become a part of. That group will provide services such as inter-library loans and other support.
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