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Library director explains nonresident fee method and previews summer programs
Summary
Ida Public Library director Mindy Long told the Belvidere City Council the library will continue using the tax-bill method to set nonresident card fees under the Illinois Library Act and previewed summer programs, free cards for children and a new video-game lending collection.
Mindy Long, director of the Ida Public Library, told the Belvidere City Council on May 19 that the library board will continue using the county tax-bill method to set nonresident library-card fees under the Illinois Library Act and defended that choice as the fairest option for the community.
Long, who identified herself as the library director, told the council that "we are a city library" and do not receive the broader property-tax revenues that district libraries draw. She said the library board reviews the method annually and decided this year to keep the tax-bill approach. "Your library fee, if you do not live within city limits, is your net taxable value of your property as determined by the county times a factor of 0.0002," she said.
Why it matters: The fee-setting method determines how much residents outside city limits pay to borrow materials. Long said the tax-bill method scales with property value and is designed to avoid charging a flat fee that would disproportionately burden lower-value households.
Long also explained programing and services the library is preparing for summer. She outlined a kickoff week starting June 9 with a public open house, a "touch a truck" event that will include police, fire and National Guard displays, mobile health services and family-oriented activities. She said the library received memorial gifts totaling about $2,000 that funded a new video-game collection (PlayStation and Xbox consoles) that will be available to Ida library cardholders only.
On children and digital access, Long said the library exercised an option in a 2022 amendment to allow no-fee cards for county children under 18; the board also issues no-fee digital-only cards for some adults who live outside the city. She told Alderwoman Gracowski she did not have precise counts on hand but estimated county cardholders in the area to be roughly 15,000–16,000 and said the number of nonresident adult cardholders was smaller and not immediately available.
Long invited residents to contact her directly with questions and to stop in at the library. "If you have a question about the library, please call me, email me. My phone number and email are on the website," she said.
The council did not take a vote on library policy at the meeting; Long said mayoral appointment and council approval apply only to library board membership and the city's role is limited in the library's independent operations. The library's spring and summer program guides were distributed to council members and the public.
