Library Commission Approves Change in Regional Library System Areas

At its meeting on May 16 the Nebraska Library Commission approved a change in Nebraska’s regional library system structure based on recommendations from the Nebraska Regional Library Systems Configuration Task Force. As a result, Nebraska’s current six regional service areas will be re-organized into four regional areas. The regional changes are expected to be in place no earlier than January 2015. State and federal budget cuts in past years and flat funding in recent years prompted consideration of reducing the number of Nebraska regional library systems. Failure to secure increased funding for the current state biennium budget led to formation of the task force to develop recommendations for regional organization. The task force met several times before proposing regional options. The regional options were presented for discussion at the Library Commission’s March 2014 meeting. Library Commission staff, regional library system directors, and regional library system boards are working on implementation actions to create the new regional entities. The Regional Library Systems Task Force Configuration report, questions and answers about regional changes, and the new regional map are available via the Library Commission’s website: http://nlc.nebraska.gov/systems/