Library Task Force Prepares for Final Meeting, Report

The Saucon Valley Library Task Force for its final meeting and final report at its July 12 meeting.

Lower Saucon Township Manager Jack Cahalan presented a rough draft of the final report at the meeting.

The task force then made bulleted lists for the conclusions found by each subcommittee, which were as follows:

Demographics:

• Lower Saucon Township residents make up 35 percent of the total of checkouts.
• 4,181 township residents have a Bethlehem Area Public Library (BAPL) card and 50 percent of these individuals (2,101) also have a HAL card.
• The total number of BAPL cardholders is 75,741.
• Lower Saucon checkouts for 2011 were approximately equal between HAL and BAPL.
• HAL receives no funding for library services from Lower Saucon Township.

Technology committee:

• A consolidated library will require additional computing hardware and software, as well as additional audio and video services to serve the needs of an increased number of library users.
• HAL already meets the state library standards for required material to serve the consolidated population of Hellertown and Lower Saucon Township.

Building committee:

• Physical features that exist could be expanded to meet state standards plus most, if not all, of the task force's assessed new resource needs.
• Currently the HAL is centrally located within the proposed service area.

Finance committee:

• A consolidated library would require hiring 2.11 full-time employees.
• A merger is financially feasible with some service modifications (i.e. the loss of the Bookmobile, although there are other book delivery options).
• Consolidated library funding options are subject to negotiations among Lower Saucon Township, Hellertown borough and the HAL Board of Trustees.

Additional considerations:

• Exploring options to split funding between HAL and BAPL.
• Library service funding could remain unchanged, to be reviewed in future annual budgets.

The final meeting of the Saucon Valley Library Task Force will take place Aug. 9 at 6pm in Lower Saucon Town Hall, 3700 Old Philadelphia Pike.