Library Board vacancy

Library Board Chair Sue Cohn has submitted her resignation from the Library Board of Trustees, effective in June 2009, as her husband Gary has been selected to be the new Superintendent of Schools for the Everett School District, and he starts work in his new position in July. The County Commissioners are in charge of recruiting for new Board members, and they will be running an ad in the Peninsula Daily News within the next week or two.

If you are interested in serving on the Library Board, or if you know someone who is, please consider submitting an application. You can do so by going to www.clallam.net and clicking on "Citizen Participation", then "Citizen Advisory Boards".

The Library Board of Trustees is the governing board for the North Olympic Library System. The Board performs long range planning for the Library, sets policy, determines the annual operating budget and supervises the Library Director. They meet monthly in addition to special meetings as required.

Over the next year, the Board will continue to study the pros and cons of pursuing a "levy lid lift", or an increase in the Library's levy rate. Due to inflationary increases in costs, the Library's expenses will exceed revenues in 2010, and the Library Board will need to decide what to do about this situation. This is just one of the challenges facing the Library in the coming years. For more information about the Board, feel free to contact me at Director@nols.org.

Copy services back at Port Angeles Main Library

Just in time for the climax of income tax season, the Port Angeles Main Library once again has a functional copy machine for public use. Thanks to a public-private partnership with Pacific Office Equipment, library customers may make copies at 10c per page. POE maintains and operates the copy machine and collects the fees. NOLS provides the service and does not have the major capital and operating costs of running a copy concession. We hope it's a win-win-win, for Library customers, for POE and for NOLS. You'll find the copier in the usual spot. Thanks for your patience as we worked to identify a replacement machine on NOLS' super tight budget.

Dateline: Clallam Bay Branch Library 3/26/09. Even though the expanded and renovated Clallam Bay Library opened to the public last September, it needed a few finishing touches. Since that time, staff have been working on filling in the gaps. New furniture for children and teens arrived last month, and today the staff emailed me a photo of the newest acquisitions, which should make reading at the Library a lot more comfortable. My understanding is that new shades for the windows will be installed sometime later today. If you haven't visited the Clallam Bay Branch lately, maybe these new features are a reason to do so? Thanks to the Clallam Bay Friends of the Library for their support of the building expansion and upgrade project.

Sequim Branch Temporary Closure

For your safety, during the last phase of remodeling, the Sequim Branch Library will temporarily close from Wednesday, March 11 until mid April. The building must be entirely closed to the public during this time. Since it will not be possible to continue providing holds pick up service at the branch, you will need to decide how you wish the library to handle your holds while the Sequim branch is closed. For details on your holds options, see the closure flyer.

The book drops are available anytime for returns.