AUGUSTA — The Maine Library Commission voted Wednesday to require libraries to employ designated paid directors in order to receive Maine State Library services, including interlibrary loan programs and internet access.
Commissioners took the vote during a daylong workshop held as part of a broader effort to develop new standards intended to improve the long‑term sustainability of Maine’s public libraries.
Sarah Moore, executive director of the Portland Public Library and a nonvoting member of the commission, urged commissioners to require paid directors. She said she has worked in small libraries and understands limited budgets, but argued that “as a profession, allowing for not even one paid position, I don’t think it’s going to move the profession forward.”
Andrea DeBiase, director of the Carrabassett Valley Public Library, agreed.
“I think we should be recognized and paid for our work,” she said, adding that she worries about tiny libraries that cannot afford paid staff members and operate entirely with volunteers.
DeBiase said Carrabassett Valley already pays staff members, although not everyone wants to be paid, including one person who signs over every paycheck to the library because he prefers to volunteer his time rather than be paid for the work.
There is a significant difference, she said, between a town not wanting to pay its staff and staff members not wanting to be paid.
The commission does not have the authority to set minimum payment, so under this proposal a library could pay its director $1 a year and still meet the requirement.
Lewiston Public Library Director Joseph Houston said he was leery of requiring that directors be paid and worried about the consequences for Maine’s smallest libraries. He reminded commissioners that they have already heard “very public feedback that we have not addressed in this conversation, and that feedback was that we (libraries) barely get any money from the town or we get no money from our town.”
“They can barely pay their firefighters,” Houston said. “Do you think they’re going to pay their libraries more?”
The Maine Library Commission first unveiled draft standards for Maine’s public libraries in November, including requirements for paid staff members and minimum operating hours to qualify for services.
Negative feedback was immediate, as was fear that libraries would be forced to close, particularly among those operating with volunteer staff members and offering limited hours, which several said is all they can manage with their available resources.
The commission initially postponed a vote on the proposed standards and, in January, dropped them and began a new rulemaking process to develop replacements.
“The other thing that people very clearly said to us in public comments was that they depend on (state) services they’re receiving. People were very clear,” Houston said, noting that those services are more than a convenience, including internet access for people searching for work or signing up for social services or other benefits.
Commission Chair Bryce Cundick, director of Mantor Library at the University of Maine at Farmington, agreed, but said he has “been in enough budget debates in town to know that a lot of times there will be a very vocal group that speaks up that sounds like they are the majority, and then once everyone is suddenly paying attention they’re a minority.”
He said that does not mean the public comments were wrong, only that he was not sure they represented all opinions.
Freeport Community Library Director Wynter Giddings urged the commission to adopt a “designated paid position” for library directors, noting that whatever language commissioners settle on “is not set in stone.”
“It’s set in Silly Putty, public Silly Putty right now,” he said.
Once commissioners adopt a final draft and send the proposal out for public comment, they could return later this year and amend the standards based on feedback.
Cundick said it almost does not matter what decision the commission makes on payment because “there’s going to be people upset about it.”
“There will be people who are upset that they don’t need a paid director,” he said, “and there will be people who are upset if we say you don’t.”
The commission voted 5-3 to require paid directors.
It also adopted a requirement that libraries have publicly available strategic plans to qualify for state services, and that those plans be reviewed every three to five years.
Commissioners trimmed a proposed requirement that libraries have at least two staff members present during open hours. The requirement was designed to protect staff members and patrons, but commissioners overwhelmingly agreed it might be difficult for small libraries to meet, endangering their access to state services. Instead, the commission agreed to include a requirement that libraries adopt safety plans that best match their own community needs.
Proposal to narrow eligibility dropped
The commission also dropped a requirement that public libraries must receive municipal funding in order to be eligible for state services.
State law defines public libraries as those that are freely open to all and receive financial support from municipalities, private associations, corporations or other groups, including nonprofits.
Commissioners had initially discussed narrowing eligibility to only libraries that receive municipal funding.
But Houston, who represents institutional libraries on the commission, raised concerns that such a requirement could exclude libraries fully funded by nonprofits or other groups. He also questioned why the commission needed to add the requirement when state law already outlines the types of funding that define public libraries.
James Jackson Sanborn, executive director of Maine InfoNet, raised another concern about politically motivated withdrawal of funding that might endanger a public library.
“What if a town select board were to be fully populated by people who are either totally anti‑spending or totally anti‑intellectual freedom and, all of a sudden, could say ‘Ah, we’re going to take away that $500,’ and that costs the library that otherwise is meeting standards access to state library services,” Sanborn said.
He added that it is still reasonable to ask why the state should put resources into a library if the town does not.
To Sanborn’s point, Giddings said there have been cases elsewhere of “municipalities completely cutting funding to a public library for ideological reasons and I would hate to see something like that happen and (libraries) lose support.”
She said she was not aware of that happening in Maine, but the concern is real.
Giddings asked State Librarian Lori Stockman how many libraries now receive state services where towns provide zero funding.
Stockman said five libraries fall into that category: Cliff Island Library, Hope Library, Jackman Public Library, Harvey Memorial Library in Parkman and Witherle Memorial Library in Castine.
Maine has 257 public libraries, Stockman said. Municipal support represents 72 percent of the $69.3 million in operating revenue for all libraries and varies greatly, ranging from $500 to $4.9 million annually depending on library size and municipal capacity.
If the commission were to mandate that a library must have municipal funding, the five libraries Stockman mentioned could still be members of the Maine Regional Library System, but would no longer be eligible for state services.
Houston objected to the proposed requirement.
“What is the purpose of carving out those five libraries, even though they meet the statutory definition of a public library?” he said.
Bangor Public Library Director Ben Treat suggested that a town could simply give its library $1 to satisfy a mandatory municipal funding requirement, which he said would not amount to meaningful support.
Houston raised a concern about towns that own the library building but provide no direct funding to the library.
“What happens with the towns where the (library) building is owned by the town but there is no line item where they send money to the public library?” Treat asked.
That is the case in Hope, where the library is located in the Town Office.
Stockman stopped the discussion, saying there were “too many unknowns and variables around this, so maybe just remove this piece?”
Commissioners agreed, and the requirement was struck from the draft.
Finally, the commission modified a requirement that libraries be open at least 12 hours a week to qualify for services, again noting the difficulty small libraries have meeting that threshold.
The proposal initially included an exception for island libraries or libraries with a service area of fewer than 300 year‑round residents, but several commissioners criticized that approach, saying some rural libraries are harder to reach than island communities and raising questions about how the commission would monitor population size.
Many of Maine’s smallest libraries are open fewer than 12 hours a week, some as little as four, and commissioners said tying state services to a library’s ability to staff hours raised questions of equity.
In the end, they adopted language requiring all libraries, regardless of location or population served, to be “staffed and open to the public for an average of 12 hours per week.”
In some small communities, where seasonal residents can lead to fluctuating hours, commissioners said the hope is that averaging 12 hours a week over the year would allow most libraries to meet the minimum requirement.
The Maine Library Commission has 17 seats. Of those, six are vacant and five are filled by members whose terms have expired.
The vacant seats include a liaison to the Maine Library Advisory Council, a representative of people with disabilities, a representative of the Wabanaki Nations, a public representative at‑large, and both seats representing K‑12 public school libraries.
Members are appointed by the governor. According to the Maine State Library, when appointments expire, members may continue to serve if they choose until a new appointment is made.
The expired positions where members continue to serve represent small college libraries, community college libraries, underserved and rural communities, special or institutional libraries, and one seat for the public at large.
Last week, York lawyer and library patron Sarah Redfield filed a petition with the Maine Library Commission on behalf of an ad hoc group of public library supporters, urging the commission to consider alternate rules to the draft it is now developing.
The commission plans to consider the petition when it meets Sept. 14.
Commissioners have 60 days from the filing date to deny the request in writing or accept it and begin rulemaking on the alternate draft.
This story was updated August 21 to clarify the story’s subhead.
