Tualatin library director: Washington County funding changes and planned centralized collections risk local service and staff

Jeriann Thompson, Tualatin Library Director and Equity and Inclusion Officer, updated the City Council on June 23 about proposed funding and governance changes in the Washington County Cooperative Library Services (WCCLS) system, including a draft funding allocation methodology and a plan to centralize collection management.

Thompson told the council the proposal under consideration would use service population and a calculated number of full-time-equivalent positions to determine each library’s share of county funding. Based on the draft methodology, Washington County would fund roughly 15 FTE for the Tualatin Library while the city currently staffs 20.5 FTE, Thompson said. She cautioned that the county’s plan to centralize collection management — an administrative consolidation of book selection, purchasing and cataloging — could yield net savings but would risk losing local collection focus and some staff roles.

“We must ensure that we have ways to maintain this high-quality customer service that familiarity generates,” Thompson said, describing collection selection…