Some readers in Illinois who do not live within the boundaries of public libraries will find their services limited due to a new law that took effect Saturday .
The law, introduced by the Illinois Library Association in Chicago, an organization that includes 4,000 library professionals and officials throughout the state, specifies that patrons who obtain non-resident user-fee cards at local libraries can only obtain books through the library where they purchased the cards.
They will still be allowed to request books through interlibrary loan. In other words, they can request a book from another library through their home library. This request, however, can take several days to several weeks to fill.
What non-residents will be precluded from is reciprocal borrowing, which means physically visiting another library and taking the book out, a common practice now. Reciprocal borrowing will still be available to those who live in the library district they get their card from.
According to Barbara Cunningham, executive director of the association, members asked the association to back such a measure as a means to increase public libraries throughout the state.
Currently, about 1.4 million people in the state, or 12 percent of the population, do not live within the boundaries of libraries, according to the Illinois State Library.
Residents of these areas who want library services usually go to a nearby library, buy non-resident cards and pay the library a fee equal to what they would pay in property taxes if they lived within the boundaries. In return, they receive the same services as resident patrons.
By limiting the services of non-residents, association members believe that this will provide the impetus for unincorporated areas to form library districts or annex into contiguous districts.
Sarah Long, director of the North Suburban Library System in Wheeling, which includes public libraries in the north and northwest suburbs, said that it is an issue of planning.
“A person can go in and purchase a card one year, and decide not to come back the next year,” she said. “That makes it difficult to plan financially.”
Deborah Miller, a trustee of the Schaumburg Township Library who lobbied for the legislation for the association, agreed that it is a planning issue.
The other problem, library directors say, is that residents “shop” for cards. In Inverness, for instance, where residents have voted no to a library several times, residents generally go to the Palatine or Barrington libraries. More often than not, they will buy the card at Palatine, but may often use it in Barrington.
With reciprocal borrowing, residents can check out any materials; with interlibrary loan, they cannot obtain new materials, so the new law will limit them in this regard also.
Dick Thompson, director of the Wilmette Public Library, pointed out that Kenilworth residents have their own library district, but that district contracts with Wilmette for library services. He said that other areas not in library districts would do the same with nearby libraries.
But not all librarians agree that this law is the answer.
“I think it would be wonderful if Illinois was blanketed with library services,” said John Blegen, executive librarian of the Glenview Public Library, “but I am not sure punitive legislation will do the trick.”
He also questions how strong the support for the measure was even within the ranks of the association since it was approved by a committee vote of 4-2.
The law will really have no effect on libraries that belong to the Du Page Library System, according to Pam Feather, executive director of the Du Page Library System, because the system has what is known as a systemwide card.
“These cards are exempt from the new law,” she said.
