Purpose:
To describe the methods by which libraries will be established, significantly changed, or closed within the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District (FVRL). The Board of Trustees will determine the provision of library services based on funding considerations, population shifts, community demographics, building obsolescence, or other reasons.
Policy:
The Board of Trustees will determine the establishment of new library locations, as well as significant changes in services, or the closure of library facilities at existing locations. The Executive Director will develop and maintain guidelines for siting libraries in FVRL’s service area and will provide recommendations to the FVRL Facilities Committee regarding library locations. The FVRL Facilities Committee will provide recommendations to the Board of Trustees for their review and consideration.
Properties Within District Boundaries:
The Fort Vancouver Regional Library District (FVRL) Board of Trustees approves the purchase, lease, exchange, and sale of real property to meet current and future library service needs for the communities the libraries serve. The Board authorizes the Executive Director, or designee, to enter into negotiations of transactions and conclude agreements for such facilities involving real property, subject to Board approval. Transactions involving real property are guided by site selection criteria developed by FVRL. All real property purchases and agreements shall be handled in accordance with FVRL’s Guidelines for Library Facility Siting, Acquisition, and Disposition of Real Property and state laws. FVRL may acquire real property for future use in advance of readiness to fund construction.
Properties Outside of District Boundaries:
FVRL shall consider requests to provide library service to Washington residents outside the District’s legal boundaries:
- By a governmental jurisdiction to contract for services, or
- As a result of a successful election by a city, partial-county, or county to annex to the district.
When full service is provided, the District will charge the jurisdiction or its residents at the same rate that is assessed within the District’s boundaries. When partial or specific services are provided, the services shall be provided on the basis of a negotiated contract. Such requests will only be considered when terms of the agreement are favorable to both parties.
Definitions:
Real Property: Any land or property that is fixed in location, which may include a building.
Service Area: Clark (excluding the City of Camas), Klickitat, and Skamania Counties and within the city limits of Woodland in Cowlitz County, and incorporated cities and towns within these counties that contract with, or are annexed to, FVRL for service.
Staffed Library: A service outlet where FVRL offers library services, including library materials, employees, and technology that may be housed in a FVRL-owned or leased facility.
Self-Service Library: A service outlet that allows patrons to enter the building with their library cards when FVRL staff are not always present.
Remote Lockers: Library materials pickup locations that may be at a library facility or located elsewhere in the community.
Book Return: A FVRL-identified container where patrons can return library materials that may be at a library facility or located elsewhere in the community.
Deposit Collection: Library materials left at a community partner facility to facilitate access to library materials or equipment.
ADMINISTRATION
The Executive Director is responsible for the administration of this policy, for establishing administrative procedures for its implementation, and for making the policy available for the public at each location and via the Library’s website.
SEVERABILITY
The Board of Trustees hereby declares its intention that the provisions of this policy are declared to be separate and severable. The invalidity of any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, chapter, title, or other portion of this policy, or the invalidity of the application thereof to any person or circumstance shall not affect the validity of the remainder of the policy, or the validity of its application to other persons or circumstances.
CONTINUANCE
The Board of Trustees hereby declares its intention that the provisions of this policy shall be construed and applied as a continuation of the provisions of the policy, as amended, insofar as applicable, and the repeal of any part of this policy shall not be construed as affecting such continuous application.
Resources
Relevant policies
References
Placement of New Library Facilities Procedure
Board Approvals and Policy History: Purchase, Lease, Exchange and Sale of Real Property Policy; Revised, renamed (formerly Siting, Acquisition, Ownership & Operation of Library Facilities policy): Original policy approved August 11, 2003; Siting Library Facilities policy: Original Policy May 2, 1994; Revised: July 28, 1999; Revised: August 13, 2001; Policy name revised for easier indexing, 2/10/03 (formerly titled Site Guidelines Policy); Revised: April 21, 2008; Revised, renamed, formerly Siting, Acquisition, Ownership & Operation of Library District Facilities Policy and approved by the Board of Trustees 11/19/2018, revised and combined with Provision of Library Service to new Areas and Purchase, Lease, Exchange and Sale of Real Property Policies 12/19/2022