Fairfax County Library Director Looks for Support for Libraries

Sam Clay, director of Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL), is hoping to reverse the almost 27 percent budget cuts the library has suffered since 2009.  “Our goal is to make the libraries absolutely essential to people’s lives,” explained Clay. “More support can lead to more money.”

Clay is holding a series of "Discussions with the Director," the first at Kings Park Library last week.  “Our customers are a basic asset,” said Clay. “We want to ensure that we are able to listen to them.” 

The meetings are part of Clay's strategic planning process for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013.  Clay said he wants to hear customer's priorities for FCPL, and hopes by educating county residents about the library's budget issues, he will be able to recruit supporters.

Clay said that because of the budget cuts, the library is limited in what it can accomplish. Staff, hours and material purchasing have all been negatively effected.

According to Mary Mulrenan, FCPL communications director, the library's total adopted budget in fiscal year (FY) 2008 was $33,536,725.  The total adopted budget for FY 2012 is $26,035,911.  “We currently get .08% of the county budget,” said Clay. “I assume that number will decrease in the future.”

Statistics provided by Mulrenan show that since FY 2008, merit staff working for the library decreased from 499 to 376 in FY 2012. That's a 30 percent cut in merit staff.

Many more library employees lost their jobs, but they were non-merit staff.  "Parsing variances in part time staff includes both merit and exempt limited term and is not readily available," wrote Mulrenan in an email to Burke Patch.

To save money, Fairfax County Public Library also cut hours.  Total weekly hours regional libraries were open each week in FY 2008 was 65.  In FY 2012, regional libraries are open only 54 hours each week.  For the community branches, hours have been cut from 59 weekly in FY 2008 to only 47 hours weekly in FY 2012.

Clay said the Library Board recently met with the Board of Supervisors.  “What we heard from every supervisor in the room was that they had heard from our customers who were concerned about hours [of operation],” said Clay.  “The library board’s first priority is the reestablishment of hours of operation,” said Clay.

Some attending the meeting voiced concern that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors does not value the library system as much as it’s customers do.

“Sharon Bulova said that the library wasn’t a core responsibility of the county,” one customer pointed out. “I wanted to shake her!”

Clay said he hopes “Discussions with the Director” will serve as a tool to help make the best of an uncertain economic time.   He plans to schedule separate discussions with different age demographics in order to better understand how people are using their libraries.

“The library has four major assets,” explained Clay. “Our buildings are one, our collection is one, our staff is one, but our customers are our basic asset. These conversations will help us.”

Two more "Discussion with the Director" meetings currently are scheduled. The closest one to Herndon is taking place at the Oakton Library on Aug. 23.

Tuesday, August 9, 7:30 p.m.
John Marshall Library
6209 Rose Hill Drive, Alexandria
703-971-0010

Tuesday, August 23, 7:30 p.m.
Oakton Library
10304 Lynnhaven Place, Oakton
703-242-4020

Fairfax County Public Library has 24 branches serving the county.