Yellow Pages
ANACORTES — If the City Council agrees, Anacortes City Library patrons could borrow books and other items from libraries in Burlington and La Conner.
And in turn, the patrons of Burlington and La Conner libraries could check out books, music and movies from the Anacortes library, under a proposed pilot program that would allow reciprocal borrowing for a year.
The proposal will be discussed tonight at the Anacortes council meeting. In a memo to the council, Cynthia Harrison, Anacortes library director, described it as the latest step in the efforts of library directors in Skagit County to “foster cooperation.”
The proposed program between the three libraries would mirror the reciprocal borrowing agreement made permanent earlier this year between Mount Vernon and Burlington libraries.
If the council members respond positively to the library proposal, they could vote either July 20 or Aug. 3.
Harrison and the library directors at Burlington and La Conner want to begin the program Sept. 1.
“We’ll go for a year and evaluate it,” said Harrison in an interview.
Also tonight, the council will consider six bids between $42,684 and $72,262 to extend the city’s 30th Street Boat Ramp by 24 feet to prevent scouring of the Fidalgo Bay seabed.
The low bidder is Tiger Construction of Everson.
The city engineering estimate was $30,000, according to a memo from the city building department.
As for the library proposal, the advantage to patrons is twofold. It would offer people living in other communities access to unique collections that they don’t currently have, Harrison said. For instance, Anacortes has a jazz collection and Burlington, a geological reference collection.
It also would be more convenient for commuters between the three communities.
“People move back and forth from La Conner to Anacortes more frequently,” Harrison said.
However, the proposed agreements won’t allow residents who live outside of the cities’ library districts to borrow from libraries that they have paid an annual fee to use. The fees ranges from $30 to $80 for each of the six libraries in Skagit.
If approved, library card holders would obtain cards from the libraries in the other cities, be subject to the other libraries’ rules and have to return books to their facilities.
Ultimately, the library directors hope that all six of the libraries in the county will have borrowing agreements with each other. Skagit voters have rejected proposals to create a countywide library system, most recently in 2005.
“That would be great to have us all cooperate, and I hope we all will,” Harrison said. “That will be one way to take down some barriers.”
Marta Murvosh can be reached at 360-416-2149 or .
