Stakeholders of Hanover's public library made an impassioned case for the library's relevance during a public meeting Tuesday night.
The meeting, by the Guthrie Memorial Library's Board of Governors, Hanover Public Library Association, Friends of the Library, and others, sought to provide context for and lay out the paths forward for the library's eventual divestment from Hanover Borough.
Three viable paths forward for the library towards divestment were presented by leadership, including the library funding Hanover Borough's annual deficit for the library budget, the library becoming its own independent 501(c)3, or the library becoming a branch of the York County Library system.
"It's really important to remember this is not a negative time, it's a different time, it's a time of change," said board of governors member Andrew Smith of the path forward during the meeting.
"We have to remember that we can do it, and we will do it."
Board of governors president Chrissy Rosensteel explained that roughly eight months ago Hanover Borough tasked the board of governors with coming up with a plan to divest from the borough that would be effective by 2027.
By June of this year, Rosensteel said, the borough is seeking the library to have a plan of action for how the library will move forward without additional financial support from the borough.
Smith said a final decision has not yet been made, as library leadership continues to gather information from various sources about all three of the options. That includes an ongoing dialogue with the York County library system, he said.
Board of governors Vice President Nat Fissel explained that the annual budget deficit covered by the borough for the library out of its general fund is around $85,000 a year on average.
"That is a pretty realizable goal that is attainable in the community," said Fissel of the possibility for library fundraisers to meet that deficit.
The hardest option, in Fissel's view, was the library becoming its own 501(c)3 nonprofit, as that would entail starting over from square one with a blank checkbook, he said during the presentation.
"Not insurmountable, but challenging," Fissel said. "There would have to be some significant spend from the community to get the funding into that nonprofit to cover operating expenses."
The third option, becoming a branch of the York County Library System, would change the oversight of the library as it would become part of the county library system's governance. In this option, the library would still maintain its identity as the Guthrie Library and would still have its own budget but would get additional financial support from the library system.
Joining the county library system as a branch would likely require approval from the Orphan's Court of York County to ensure that becoming a branch of the system would not violate the deed restrictions of the library, which state that the library was to be run by Hanover Borough and the Board of Governors.
The library has been a member of the York County Library system for over 20 years, but is not a branch. That means it gets support and benefits from the system, including being able to request books from across the system and get technological support, but it is not managed directly by the system's leadership.
While three options were presented for the library, the leadership has not yet decided on which path to pursue as they seek more information.
The one constant in all three, however, is the need for the public's support, Smith told the audience, which had filled the library's Bare Center room to full capacity during the meeting.
At the heart of the meeting was Hanover Borough's recent decision to lease significant portions of the library to the Hanover Area Historical Society, which had been approved by the York County Orphan's court as not having violated the deed restrictions.
Board president Rosensteel told the audience that the library, due to being a tenant of the borough, was limited in its ability to fight the lease due to the conflict of interest in being a tenant.
Rosensteel said that in the past, it took a community member intervening and challenging the borough to put a stop to a previous proposed lease.
Along with that, Rosensteel told the audience that it was expressed that allowing the historical society lease to go through would "end the threats, for lack of a better word," levied by the borough against the library that could have hindered the library further.
In the historical society lease, which came as a surprise to several in the library's leadership, the Hanover Area Historical Society will take 4,600 square feet of the library in 2024, which will then grow to 6,520 square feet in 2025 when the teen room is moved.
The full 6,520-square-foot lease will primarily entail the "old part" of the library, as well as a recently updated teen room. The historical society will additionally take curatorship of the Pennsylvania collection of the library as part of the lease.
The library would continue to operate out of the remaining 19,614 square feet, which is primarily composed of the newer segment of the library.
While the footprint is shrinking due to this lease, the relevancy is only increasing, according to Smith.
199,369 items were checked out last year, Smith said, a 4% increase over previous years. So far in the first quarter of 2024, 47,000 items have been checked out already, he said. In 2023, visits to the library were up 16% from 2022.
"People are using it more," Smith said, "we have data to show it."
In fact, Smith said, Hanover's library gets more monthly visits than the Martin library in York City, which services a much larger community.
The library has been a growing source of meeting spaces for virtual and in person meetings, Smith said, with over 7942 people in 781 meetings in 2023. With the digital age, the uses of the library have only grown, Smith said.
As the meeting came to a conclusion, Smith said he would share who the future leaders of the library would be, and asked the audience to stand.
"Oh, so you are the future leaders," laughed Smith. "Thank you for your time."
Harrison Jones is the Hanover reporter for the Evening Sun. Reach him at hjones@gannett.com
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