Item A: River Road/Santa Clara Transition Project

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Challenges: May generate equity concerns among City residents; a “special populations” policy would have to be applied City-wide; costs may be low in comparison to other City operational budgets, but may be high within the context of the City library budget. Option No2: Support for Volunteer Library – . There are already some mutual support activities (such as in-kind professional advice) underway between the volunteer library and the City. The City may wish to consider an agreement with the volunteer library group for other support such as shared circulations, priority call at surplus book sales or donations, and access to surpluses computers (or City computer “buys”). Advantages: Provides tangible evidence of City support for a new neighborhood institution; costs to the City’s overall budget could be relatively negligible Challenges: Costs in the context of the City Library budget could be more significant Option 3: “Storefront” Library – Library services could be located and operated as part of existing community institutions and facilities (such as the River Road Parks and Recreation District). Location within schools or other public buildings might also be considered, as well as in separate commercial building space, or even as part of the space occupied by a specific commercial business. “Storefront” services could range from simple drop off/pick up depots, to the once more common book- mobile (an option that has declined over time due to high relative costs in most communities), to computerized book kiosks within commercial businesses, to leased or donated space (although this last option would save only on any initial capital costs of a new branch library building). Advantages: A potentially lower cost means (compared to a full branch library) to provide physical library services in the two neighborhoods; potential for cooperation and strengthening of existing community institutions (such as the Parks District or volunteer library) Challenges: Operational costs may not be within the means of the City Library Department budget; a storefront library program may have to be developed City-wide and River Road and Santa Clara may not be the “first in line” Heritage Options As the only library service for River Road and Santa Clara is either through the City of Eugene’s Library or through the start-up Santa Clara volunteer library, it may appear to be inconsistent to discuss any library services alternative as a heritage option, in the sense that “heritage” implies a well established neighborhood resource or characteristic meriting preservation. Nonetheless, given the limited number of institutions in either neighborhood that provide for place-named centers of community activity and gathering, options that could facilitate the creation of such centers are appropriately considered under this heading. ? Option No1: Multi-jurisdictional Library Cooperative – . Regional library districts, or library cooperatives consisting of county, city and special libraries, have been formed in many communities. The Lane Library League has been promoting this idea. Such co-ops may be underwritten (in part at least) by regional library tax measures, and participating libraries may be compensated for circulations to parties in other jurisdictions by “per circ” reimbursements funded by the tax measures. This tax option is easiest to implement if there is already a jurisdiction providing library service region-wide (e.g.: a county), although there are no technical (but probably many policy or budget) reasons why Lane County could not “sponsor” a co-op in this way It would be an open question whether a co-op consisting of the city libraries of Eugene, Springfield and Junction City would deliver enough “critical mass” to support a co-op. The addition of the recently approved Creswell library district and other districts in the future (perhaps encompassing many smaller communities in Lane County), could help provide such critical mass. 15 River Road/Santa Clara Transition/Heritage White Paper DRAFT 11-24-05 Service provider Review