Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Public Library Hours, Autumn 2023, part V: South of Seattle

Dear Diary,

This part of this page concerns eight public libraries in five counties - Clark, Cowlitz, Grays Harbor, Skamania and Wahkiakum.  These libraries have twenty buildings in western Washington.  Timberland Regional Library has eight branches in Grays Harbor County, but these are all of the public libraries in the other four counties.  I've previously covered fully only one library in this part, with one building, in Clark County, but have also come very close to fully covering the only library in Grays Harbor County that this part deals with.

Contents of this part:

Obviously, the library I've previously covered is Camas Public Library, and the one I came close with is Ocean Shores Public Library.

Most of these libraries make it pretty clear that they won't lend anything to Seattle residents except through inter-library loan, and the single-location libraries also won't lend to most residents of counties near Seattle, either.  Considering they're all at least 100 miles from my house, I can hardly blame them.

Previous parts of pages relevant to this part, for the six libraries not previously fully covered:

Additional previous page and parts of page relevant to this part, for the two libraries previously fully or almost fully covered:

All the single-location libraries in this part keep their hours on their front pages.  Several are poorly documented at the Internet Archive, with the result that I had to go back to early 2019 for the pre-pandemic hours or to early 2023 for the autumn 2022 hours I wanted.  Three single-location libraries - Cathlamet, Kalama and Camas - have been at their full pre-pandemic schedules, to the extent that I could check, both in early and late 2022 and at present.  Elsewhere, Kelso has changed its hours in the past year, in order to trade evening for morning ones, FVRL has made two minor changes, and Castle Rock, Ocean Shores and Longview haven't changed anything.

Castle Rock Public Library

The Castle Rock Public Library was, in January 2019, open 11 A.M. to 6 P.M. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. Wednesdays and Saturdays, for a total of 38 hours per week.  On January 20, 2022 its website said it was still closed due to COVID-19; it had re-opened according to the website of  May 28, 2022, but there was no schedule on the page.  Given the Internet Archive's infrequent captures, the first re-opened schedule available is from January 20, 2023.  Unsurprisingly, that's the same schedule as today:  It's open 1 P.M. to 5 P.M. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, for a total of 16 hours per week.  So it's open 8 morning hours (versus 21 back then), 6 evening (versus 9), and 2 weekend (versus 8).

This is ostensibly a municipal library, and Castle Rock is small, 2,446 people as of the last census.  I went into some detail about the library's travails in part III of "Six Months Later", and got something important wrong.  Since then Eric Johnson of KOMO has written another pæan to the volunteer librarian, Vicki Selander.  This is especially helpful because the pæan I linked to in April 2022 is now definitely paywalled.

Here's the thing.  Public libraries' boards of trustees are appointed, not elected, at least in Cowlitz, King and Skagit counties, and probably everywhere in Washington.  So there aren't all that many library-related elections in the average county in the average year.  However, I've gone through all the archived elections at the Cowlitz County auditor's site, from 1998 through the present, and there have been 28 library-related elections in Cowlitz County in that time.  Of those, 25 concerned Castle Rock Public Library.

I said in part I of this page that public libraries in Washington either are municipal, funded through a municipality's general fund, or are district, funded by a property tax district of their own.  Seattle Public Library is currently both.  Castle Rock Public Library has since 2002 been neither.  It's been a municipal library of a really small municipality, but its funding has been increasingly reliant on its own special-purpose one-time property tax levy on that municipality.  Which Castle Rock voters consistently passed, year after year - 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 when they switched from general to primary elections, 2010 - and then in 2011 for the first time they didn't pass it, not by voting it down but by not voting it up enough, given Washington's supermajority vote requirement for such levies.  So in a special election in 2012 the library tried again and it passed, after which it passed again in the primaries of 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.  Then, near as I can tell, someone got greedy, putting another special-purpose one-time property tax levy onto the general election ballot.  It passed, and after that, the levy passed in the primary of 2018, but then failed (again by not getting 60%) four consecutive times:  primary 2019, general 2019, primary 2020, general 2020.  Near as I can tell, after that last vote is when the librarian "retired" and became a volunteer.  In the primary of 2021, a vote for a reduced levy, 60% of the previous amount, passed.  But they came back again in the 2021 general, and not only did that fail but so did both votes in 2022.

So, I mean, yes, it's impressive that this one woman has been heroically keeping the library going all this time, but isn't it obvious that public libraries shouldn't be in this position in the first place?  Here's where I made a crucial mistake in April 2022.  I said they'd tried to turn the library from a municipal to a district library and lost (by getting 57% of the vote, of course).  Well, I now know what both a failed and a successful attempt to set up a rural partial county library district looks like in the Cowlitz County auditor's records, and those are the only two such things in the record from 1998 to 2023.  I was wrong, they hadn't tried to do that, but I don't have a clue why I was wrong; the obvious thing to do is to turn Castle Rock into a district library.  The goal should be to cut the levy, the cents per $1000 of property value, on Castle Rock proper, and an entire rural district too, down to a level that could actually pass, while still bringing in enough money to fund a significantly better library with a small but actually paid staff.  Oh, and not gamble the library's continued existence on voters' moods each year.  Oh, and reduce the un-libraried population of Cowlitz County.

Unsurprisingly, this existing library's website doesn't document its policies about library card eligibility or about patron conduct. I've found no libraries listing it as a reciprocal borrowing partner.

Ocean Shores Public Library

This library (which is much further west of Seattle than it is south of Seattle, but still is south) wasn't in the old library directory kept by the Washington State Library when I started in April 2022, but is in the current one.  Hence I didn't find out about it until I started consulting other sources besides that directory, and I first told you about it, dear Diary, in September 2022, four days before a visit from the Internet Archive.  Just for fun, I treated it more or less fully then.

On February 25, 2020, the Ocean Shores Public Library opened at 11 A.M. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and closed at 6 P.M. Tuesdays through Thursdays and at 5 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays, for a total of 33 hours per week.  On April 16, 2022, September 26, 2022, and today, it's been open 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and noon to 4 P.M. Sundays, for a total of 34 hours per week.  More precisely, it's had 16 morning hours both before and after, has gone from 9 to 6 evening hours, and from 8 to 12 weekend hours.  This pattern - trading evening for weekend hours without increasing morning hours - is still unique among western Washington public libraries.

OSPL did a general revision of their policies in 2021.  As to library cards, they remain a go-it-alone library, with no reciprocal borrowing agreements mentioned at the site (here, here, or here, this last a 3-page PDF) or by any other library in Washington I've looked at.  They appear to do neither any one card system nor unilateral card issuance.  They require proof of residence for a resident (free) card, but accept driver licenses and government issued photo ID, so the issue for homeless people is what address the Grays Harbor office of the Department of Licensing would put on their cards.  On the ID I got while homeless in King County, the clerk put a shelter's address even though I'd pointed out that I had no dealings with that shelter, and had provided the address at which I actually slept at the time.  There's a long list of shelters in Grays Harbor County at a dubious site, and they're all in Aberdeen.  So I think it's unlikely that a homeless person could get a free library card in Ocean Shores.

OSPL's Patron Code of Conduct, supposedly last modified 2021, now includes a bunch of rules I didn't see in September 2022; that may have to do with the weird computer format with which they were then presented.  They're distributed among three lists, only one of which I saw then, and that "Illegal Behavior" list still doesn't include any of the rules I track.  However, "Unsafe or Disruptive Behavior" includes "Bodily hygiene so offensive as to interfere with others’ use and enjoyment of the library".  And "Inappropriate Use" includes "Use of library facilities for purposes inconsistent with library use, such as sleeping, bathing, shaving, washing hair or clothing" and "Leaving personal belongings unattended or with library staff".

Kelso Public Library

Kelso is the smaller, eastern, of two cities on the Cowlitz River just north of its junction with the Columbia River.  It's been the Cowlitz County seat for just over a century.   On January 10, 2019 its public library had the longest hours in Cowlitz County:  it was open 10 A.M. to 8 P.M. Mondays through Fridays, and 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Saturdays, for a total of 58 hours per week.  I doubt it's had the longest hours since re-opening began, and certainly not as of May 24, 2022, when it was open 27 hours per week (10 A.M. to 4 P.M. Wednesdays, noon to 7 P.M. Thursdays through Saturdays), nor October 7, 2022, when it was open 35 hours per week (10 A.M. to 5 P.M. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, noon to 7 P.M. Thursdays through Saturdays).  Or now, when the hours are 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. Tuesdays through Saturdays except Thursdays noon to 7 P.M, again for a total of 35 hours per week.  Comparing now to January 2019, it's keeping 18 morning hours (versus 25 then), 8 evening hours (versus 20), and 9 weekend hours (versus 13).

Kelso Public Library's how to get a library card page now lists both of the library's reciprocal borrowing agreements, whereas in April 2022 it listed the one with Longview Public Library across the river but not the one with Fort Vancouver Regional Library somewhat further away.  It says "Mail" is adequate proof of residency, but the Library Card and Circulation Policy (3-page PDF signed March 2023) says "a piece of officially printed mail", whatever that means.  (Most of my more "official" mail comes in window envelopes.  Is it different in Kelso?)  Voter's registration cards are also accepted, and since the Cowlitz County auditor's office is half a mile from the library, registering to vote shouldn't be too hard.  I think a local homeless person who's willing and able to deal with bureaucracy, and can afford ID, shouldn't have much trouble getting a Kelso Public Library card, at least in theory.  But it's probably pretty difficult for residents of Seattle or neighbouring counties, homeless or housed.

Kelso Public Library's Library Use Policy (4-page PDF last modified this past March) surprises me.  Its first list, as in Ocean Shores, is dominated by illegal behaviours, but also includes "Leaving personal property unattended.  Items left unattended will be removed."  Imagine if leaving one's property unattended were made illegal.  Nobody could ever leave their house without breaking the law.  All farmers would have to be arrested.  Huh.  Anyway, lists of lesser offenses include "Sleeping" (with an exception for attended children) and "Personal hygiene, odor, excessive perfumes, or scent that constitutes a nuisance to others or poses a health risk."  And a really unusual one that some people like to associate with the homeless, although it's actually a pretty housed-specific problem:  "Introducing bed bugs or other pests via returned materials or personal belongings."

The enforcement policy distinguishes between "less egregious" misbehaviour such as noise and "more egregious" misbehaviour such as fighting; that makes the classification of unattended property as a criminal offense more worrisome.  There's a long, separate "reinstatement" policy, which I think is probably actually a good thing, but it includes a whole paragraph devoted specifically to the pest infestation rule.

Longview Public Library

Longview is, of course, as suggested above, the city on the western side of the Cowlitz River from Kelso.  It's three times as populous as Kelso, it's the biggest city in the county, and most of the reciprocal borrowing agreements in southwest Washington that aren't with Fort Vancouver Regional Library are instead with the Longview Public Library.

On February 21, 2020, LPL was open 10 A.M. to 8 P.M. Mondays through Wednesdays, and 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. Thursdays through Saturdays, for a total of 51 hours per week.  On April 7, 2022, it was open 40 hours per week (10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, noon to 4 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays).  On October 12, 2022, and today, it's opened at 9 A.M. Mondays through Saturdays, and closed at 7 P.M. Mondays and Tuesdays, 6 P.M. Wednesdays and Thursdays, and 5 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays, for a total of 54 hours per week.  In more detail, it's open 30 morning hours now (versus 25 pre-pandemic), 14 evening (versus 17), and 10 weekend (versus 9).

LPL's Library Card page continues to ignore reciprocal borrowing agreements except Kelso's.  But its Circulation Policy, 4-page PDF last modified earlier this year, lists its agreements with Fort Vancouver Regional Library and Timberland Regional Library as well.  Neither page lists the agreement Cathlamet Public Library asserts, and library director Jacob Cole assures me by e-mail that LPL doesn't currently have any agreement with Cathlamet.  Its version of mail as proof of residency is significantly tighter than usual:  "official mail postmarked within the last month".  Also, although it says the list of proofs of residency given isn't complete, it doesn't currently include voter registration cards.  It may, perhaps, be harder for a homeless person to get a library card in Longview than in Kelso, but I wrote to ask, and Jacob Cole answered that without address verification, a homeless person (or, I suspect, any person) is limited to checking out five physical items, but with that piece of recent official mail, they can move up to full privileges.

LPL's Patron Code of Conduct, which is a PHP page so has no last-modified date, begins with a table showing four categories of offense.  The first may result in a day's expulsion; it includes "Unattended items", "Sleeping (or the appearance of) that impedes others from using Library spaces or resources", "Body odor or lack of hygiene that unreasonably interferes with others' ability to use the Library and staff's ability to serve", and "Using the restrooms or other library facilities for bathing, shampooing or laundry".  The fourth may result in up to two years' expulsion; it includes "Trespassing by being in public spaces of the Library outside of Library operating hours", which I interpret as including a camping ban, although that may not be the intent.  (There definitely isn't a more explicit camping ban.)  There's no separate enforcement section, just the one built into the categories. Cowlitz County reported 328 homeless people in 2020, and I'd bet more than half of them were in Longview and/or Kelso.

Cathlamet Public Library

The Cathlamet Public Library, the only public library in Wahkiakum County, which is the least populous county in western Washington, has been open just fifteen hours per week, Tuesdays through Saturdays, 2 P.M. to 5 P.M. Those were their hours on January 17, 2019, on March 16, 2022, on January 20, 2023, and on October 14, 2023.

Cathlamet Public Library only offers free cards to town residents, but the annual fee for paid cards is cheap enough, $15 per year for adults, that a hypothetical homeless person who lived in the county but not in Cathlamet might well be able to pay it.  The card page lists three "Reciprocal Borrowing Agreements", but one isn't much like the other two.  The one with Longview Public Library (not confirmed by the latter, as noted above) involves "Borrower slips" but is open to all "Cathlamet Library customers", while the ones with Timberland Regional Library (also not confirmed) and Fort Vancouver Regional Library (confirmed) don't need slips but are open only to residents of the town.  I suspect this paragraph, two-thirds outdated or worse, is kept because it reminds the library director of happier days, not because it's useful to anyone.  The circulation policy is only about actual circulation, not card eligibility, so I don't know what hoops that hypothetical homeless applicant might have to jump through.

As this might suggest, Wahkiakum County reported 10 or fewer homeless people in 2020. In keeping with which, Cathlamet Public Library's Behavior Rules include only four specific offenses, none of which are on my list.

Fort Vancouver Regional Library

Fort Vancouver Regional Library is the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room of southwestern Washington libraries.  It has the only libraries open Sundays in the region.  It's the only reciprocal borrowing partner of several of the smaller libraries in the region, and the only one that's made agreements with more distant libraries.  It's also, of course, the only one with multiple branches.  So I was worried about how I'd present its hours before the pandemic, at two points in 2022, and at present.  I needn't have been.

FVRL has a location that doesn't offer public restrooms.  North Bonneville Community Library is in the lobby of North Bonneville City Hall; the library room is usually only accessible with a library card, but is irrelevant to restroom availability in that public building.  Not counting that, and not counting the two libraries in Klickitat County, on February 24, 2020 FVRL had eleven branches with restrooms in western Washington, but made do with only nine schedules for them.  In further schedule economy, it went down to just four schedules early in 2022, and today has eight.  It's massively expanded the hours of one of its branches, and has opened another to the general public for the first time, so it now has twelve branches with restrooms in western Washington.  (For the complexities of the lowest-hours branches I had to ask the help of FVRL's PR person, Tak Kendrick, who got back to me today.)

FVRL is a non-BiblioCommons library that keeps a single page collecting its locations' hours.  However, during 2022, that page omitted the hours (examples from 2/21 and 7/2).  Fortunately, the Internet Archive kept three complete sets of branch pages with hours, at 1/21, 2/21 and 7/2, as well as an incomplete set at 9/26 made up on 12/4.  Each branch name below is linked to the Internet Archive's 2022 page for the branch's home page so your readers, dear Diary, can check for themselves (and to simplify the link structure).

It's probably simplest to go branch by branch rather than schedule by schedule or date by date.  Let's start, dear Diary!

  • Before the pandemic, the Vancouver branch was open 68 hours per week, 9 A.M. to 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Fridays through Sundays.  On February 21, 2022, it was open 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. every day, for a total of 56 hours per week.  On July 2, 2022 and today, it's open 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Fridays through Mondays, and 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. Tuesdays through Thursdays, for a total of 62 hours per week.
  • The Cascade Park branch was open in early 2020 9 A.M. to 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays, for a total of 62 hours per week. On February 21, 2022, it was open 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Mondays through Saturdays, for a total of 48 hours per week. On July 2, 2022 and today, it's back to its pre-pandemic hours.
  • The Battle Ground and Three Creeks branches were both, before the pandemic, open 10 A.M. to 8 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays, for a total of 56 hours per week. On February 21, 2022, they were open the same schedule as Cascade Park. On July 2, 2022 and today, they're open 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays, again for a total of 56 hours per week.
  • The Vancouver Mall branch was open in February 2020 10 A.M. to 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Thursdays and Fridays, and 1 P.M. to 6 P.M. Sundays, for a total of 57 hours per week. On February 21 and July 2, 2022, it was open 11 A.M. to 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 A.M. to 6 P.M. Fridays and Sundays, and 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Saturdays, adding up to 54 hours per week. Today, it opens at 11 A.M. every day, closing at 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays and 6 P.M. Fridays through Sundays, for a total of 53 hours per week.
  • The Ridgefield branch, before the pandemic, was open 42 hours per week, 10 A.M. to 8 P.M. Tuesdays and to 6 P.M. Wednesdays through Saturdays. On February 21, 2022 it had the same schedule as Cascade Park. On July 2, 2022 and today it opens at 10 A.M. Mondays through Saturdays, closing at 6 P.M. except Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7 P.M, for a total of 50 hours per week.
  • The Washougal branch was open the same schedule as the Ridgefield one (42 hours per week) in February 2020. On February 21, 2022 it had the same schedule as Cascade Park, and it has kept that schedule since (or at least on July 2, 2022 and today), 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Mondays through Saturdays, totalling 48 hours per week.
  • The La Center branch had a different version of the Ridgefield / Washougal schedule before the pandemic, but with the same total of 42 hours per week; it was closed Saturdays and Sundays and open until 8 P.M. Thursdays. It too has kept the February 21, 2022 schedule, 10 to 6 M-Sat, 48 hours, since then.
  • The Woodland branch had the same schedule as La Center except that its late day was Wednesdays. Again, it's kept the 48-hour schedule since at least February 21, 2022.
  • The Stevenson branch used to have a longer schedule than Ridgefield or these others, opening at 9 A.M. Mondays through Saturdays, closing at 5 P.M. most of those days but at 8 P.M. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, for a total of 54 hours per week. However, since at least February 21, 2022, it's had the Monday through Saturday 48-hour 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. schedule.
  • The Yacolt branch was open only with an FVRL card before the pandemic, and also on February 21, 2022.  But on July 2, 2022 it was open, that is, staffed, so people without cards can enter, 25 hours per week, and it remains so:  9 A.M. to 1 P.M. Mondays, 1:30 to 5:30 P.M. Tuesdays, and 9 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. Thursdays and Fridays.
  • Yale Valley branch was the subject of at least two of the Cowlitz County library elections mentioned above that weren't about the Castle Rock Public Library. The branch is the physical result of a rural library district that contracts with FVRL. That district may have been the district that was defeated in 2000, was certainly the district that passed in 2002, and it was soundly defeated - getting just 48% of the vote - on a property tax levy in 2010. I'm sure that has nothing at all to do with the branch having the shortest staffed hours in the FVRL system.  (To be fair, it's been open generous hours with a library card as a pass all along.)  It was open 1 1/2 hours per week, Wednesdays 2:30 to 4 P.M., in February 2020 (and no, that wasn't a fluke; the hours were the same in June 2017).  However, on February 21, 2022, it was open 9 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. Tuesdays and Saturdays, and 9 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. Thursdays. On July 2, 2022, and today, it's open Mondays 2 to 5:30 P.M., Tuesdays 9 A.M. to 12:30 P.M., and Thursdays 9:30 A.M. to 6 P.M. Both of these more recent schedules total 15 1/2 hours.
  • The North Bonneville branch, for what it's worth, was open (in the sense of staffed) from 1 P.M. to 5 P.M. Tuesdays through Thursdays before the pandemic.  (This library too has a setup by which library cards can open things.)  On February 21 and July 2 of 2022, it was open from 2 P.M. to 5 P.M. Tuesdays and Thursdays.  But sometime around the end of 2022, the schedule changed to 2 P.M. to 5 P.M. Wednesdays and Fridays.  As noted above, this branch's hours control no restrooms' hours, so I'm not including it in the totals below.

So in total, FVRL has pulled ahead of its pre-pandemic hours, and has done so without sacrificing very many evening hours.  Its total weekly hours have risen from 522.5 pre-pandemic to 571.5 now.  Its morning hours, from 254.5 to 288.5; evening, from 161 to 155.5; and weekend, 107 to 127.5.

In April 2022, as you, dear Diary, know, I wrote:  "I'm pretty sure FVRL has encountered homeless people, and it looks like it offers them full service cards."  I wrote that based on the get an account page and that page's proof of address appendage.  But then, while writing this page, I finally checked FVRL's Library Privileges policy, which emphasises "current physical address".  Here too Tak Kendrick came to my rescue, telling me to believe the pages, not the (non-PDF) policy.

Clark County found 916 people homeless in its 2020 point-in-time count, Skamania County 43.  FVRL's Rules of Conduct, last modified 2018, reflects those numbers. It begins with a list of things to do or not do "When using the library".  This includes:  "All belongings/bags brought into the library must be carried in a single trip, kept contained, out of the way of others and within your reach at all times. Do not leave belongings unattended. The library is not responsible for items that are lost, stolen or damaged in the library or on library grounds." as well as "Maintain order and safe entry/exit by not loitering in high traffic areas, doorways, aisles and stairways, and keep personal items from interfering with others' access to the library."

Following that comes a numbered list, "The following behaviors are prohibited at the library".  These include "14. Discomforting others due to offensive body odor, per RCW 27.12.290."; "15. Improper use of library grounds (camping, skateboarding, overnight parking, etc.); or library restrooms (bathing, shaving, loitering, washing clothes, etc.)."; and "16. Monopolizing library spaces (sleeping, excessive belongings, congregating, etc.) or otherwise interfering with others' access to the library."  Those numbers are high enough that violators get "up to two warnings" before being "excluded for up to one year".  (Violators of rules 1 to 4 can be expelled immediately and can be excluded for up to life.  However, rule 4 is "Refusing to comply with the direction of a library staff member." so nobody is entirely off the hook.)

Kalama Public Library

Kalama is on the Columbia, a few miles south of Longview and Kelso.  It isn't much bigger than Castle Rock considerably further north, but its budget seems to be in much better shape, given that it doesn't rely on special library levies.

The Kalama Public Library has kept the same hours each time I've looked - May 4, 2019; May 19, 2022; October 1, 2022; or today. Noon to 5 P.M. Mondays through Fridays and 9 A.M. to 2 P.M. Saturdays, for a total of 30 hours per week.

The Get a Library Card page still doesn't mention the reciprocal borrowing agreement Fort Vancouver Regional Library says it has.  It calls for "official mail with street address" as well as photo ID, so I'd bet against cards for local homeless people.  The library doesn't appear to have a more detailed eligibility policy online.

The Patron Code of Conduct is brief and includes none of the rules I track.

Camas Public Library

Camas is a suburb adjacent to Vancouver; its population is about two-thirds the size of Longview's.  When I fully covered the Camas Public Library in April 2022, I noted that homeless people were known to Camas.  The library is currently celebrating its centenary.

Camas Public Library had returned to its full pre-pandemic schedule by April 2022, and that schedule hasn't changed:  10 A.M. to 8 P.M. Mondays through Wednesdays, 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Thursdays through Saturdays, for a total of 54 hours per week.

The reason I fully covered Camas Public Library in April 2022 (and in October 2022) is this paragraph from its Reciprocal Borrowing and Nonresident Use policy (1-page PDF):  "The Camas Public Library will provide library services free of charge to any person who lives within the boundaries of a political jurisdiction that provides tax-supported public library services."  Notice that this library across a river from Oregon doesn't limit this policy to Washington residents.  Its get a library card page doesn't mention this, but the online application it directs people to didn't blink when I gave it my actual Seattle ZIP code.  So Camas Public Library offers cards unilaterally; while it doesn't scorn reciprocal borrowing agreements, it doesn't list its own, either.  In Washington only Fort Vancouver Regional Library mentions an agreement with it; but, like FVRL, it's part of something called the Metropolitan Interlibrary Exchange, which appears not to have a home page, but includes libraries of Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas and Hood River counties in Oregon.

I quoted Camas Public Library's Rules of Conduct (1-page PDF) in full back then, and it has a last-modified date of 2018, so I'm not surprised that it still doesn't include any of the rules I list.

Well, that's it, dear Diary.  I've now fully covered all the public libraries in western Washington in your pages.

That said, I've reluctantly realised that I can't write the conclusion to this page until I do the heaps of work necessary to get correct library coverage numbers.  So it'll be a while.  In the meantime, though, I've been working on a new, shorter, set of libraries, so expect to hear from me no later than next week with those, if nothing else.  Happy days and nights until then, dear Diary.

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