Librarian Alex Porrata sat on the porch of the Inverness Library, an inviting yellow house in First Valley once known as the Gables, greeting people by name. They were gathering for a Monday afternoon mending circle, one of the library’s latest community-oriented activities.
“It’s a welcoming space,” Ms. Porrata said. She has been the only regular librarian staffing the Inverness branch since Ann Bertucci left in December. She has presided over pared-down post-Covid hours but has restored programs and fielded as much demand for books and tech as ever. As the menders began their stitching, several teenage boys sat in a corner, using the library’s internet and chatting.
Most of the mending circle’s participants are seniors who are exempt from Marin County’s library parcel tax, which is up for renewal this year. But Ms. Porrata said the newly expanded tax will benefit seniors and young people the most. “I really hope it passes,” she added.
Voters will decide in November whether to renew the parcel tax, which the Board of Supervisors agreed to bump up last week to $98 per parcel from around $58 this year. Marin first levied the tax in 2010, and the public reiterated its support in 2014, when a $49 version passed by a 78 percent margin. Set to expire in 2024, the tax must be renewed in November’s general election with more than two thirds of the vote. Last week, supervisors approved the nearly 70-percent rate hike, relying on polls that showed widespread support for improving library programs.
“Our community survey speaks to the need for more from the library system,” libraries director Lana Adlawan told the supervisors. “Without the passage of the parcel tax measure and an increase, we will not be able to keep the status quo. We are stretching as much as we can with our existing budget to provide excellent service.”
The tax currently brings in $2.8 million annually and accounts for 13 percent of the library’s budget, the bulk of which is funded by other local taxes. With the new increase, it would bring in about $4.7 million every year, a little over 20 percent of the budget. The proceeds are earmarked to maintain and restore hours, enhance programs for teens, adults and seniors, increase book and digital collections and upgrade facilities. The tax is assessed on parcels in the library district, which encompasses all unincorporated Marin along with Novato, Fairfax and Corte Madera, but residents over 65 will continue to be exempt, since many are on a fixed income.
In a survey commissioned by Friends of the Marin County Free Library, three quarters of likely voters in the library district indicated support for increasing the tax to $98 and renewing it in November. The top-ranking priority for the 600 survey respondents was keeping library branches from closing.
In 2009, the year before the parcel tax first passed, the county shut down the 80-year-old San Geronimo library branch, on the Lagunitas School campus, amid recession-era budget cutbacks. The library system is still running a deficit: $2.4 million in the 2021-2022 fiscal year, and a projected $2.9 million for the current year. The four West Marin branches are holding on, but still recovering from the pandemic.
“We’re almost fully back up to normal,” said Ms. Adlawan, who took over from former library director Sara Jones last year. Three out of the four coastal branches have restored their pre-Covid hours, which have always been spotty: the Stinson Beach branch is closed Tuesday mornings, Wednesdays and Thursdays; Bolinas is closed Tuesdays, Thursday mornings and Fridays; and Point Reyes is closed Tuesday mornings, Wednesdays and Thursday mornings. All are closed on Sundays. The Inverness branch has yet to restore its former hours, as the library has not hired a second part-time librarian to work when Ms. Porrata can’t. The county expects to hire the new librarian by September, when the branch hours will be lengthened on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Monday evenings. It will remain closed on Thursdays.
The Inverness branch, with its senior gatherings and free internet, is as much of a public community space as any in the village. “They’re not just a place to check out books,” said Madeline Bryant, who took over as the branch manager for West Marin’s four libraries last year. “They’re really a vital place in the community.”
Ms. Bryant said she’s looking forward to facilities upgrades paid for by the parcel tax. The four West Marin branches are leased by the library, so they won’t get exterior renovations like the county-owned facilities in East Marin, but they could get fresh paint, new carpets and new book drops. “All of our facilities, as beautiful and wonderful as they are, could use some upgrades,” Ms. Bryant said.
With a school essay, West Marin School eighth grader Prairie Press helped the Inverness Association, which owns the library building, secure a $500 grant from the West Marin Fund to help clean up the children’s section. The woodwork was dingy, Ms. Press wrote, and the table needed organizing. Ms. Porrata made some improvements to the section, but said she’s working to match the grant. The money could also go toward a new reshelving cart, book purchases, or a storytime cart with organized drawing materials.
The first days of the pandemic forced West Marin library programs online, but many have reemerged in person. Children’s storytime has returned, open to the public at Point Reyes and Bolinas branches, and to school kids at Inverness. West Marin Literacy Services, a library program, offers English classes in person at the Point Reyes branch, now with a hybrid option online. In-person book clubs have met sporadically in the past year, and a few teen programs like henna workshops have returned.
Ms. Porrata hopes the increased parcel tax can pay for more laptops and internet hotspots for members to borrow, and more time available for tech support for seniors and kids. The Point Reyes branch offers dedicated tech support time from a librarian on Thursday evenings and Friday mornings, but Ms. Porrata is often interrupted by other tasks when assisting people in Inverness. Ms. Bryant said she hopes all four West Marin branches will offer the service once the new tax is passed.
“We really need more tech, and we saw that really clearly with the pandemic,” Ms. Porrata said. When school was remote, kids living on ranches or properties with unreliable internet showed up at the library to use its signal or borrow hotspots. “People were depending on the library then, and they’re continuing to depend,” she said.