posted on April 10, 2011 13:53
Type of Jurisdictions Involved
Village
Specific Jurisdictions Involved
- Village of Kimberly,
- Village of Little Chute
County
Outagamie
Region
Northeastern
Type of Agreement
66.0301(2) joint agreement
Implementation and Incubation
September 2001
Factors Involved
- Desire to create a new library on the part of the Village of Little Chute
- Desire on the part of the Village of Kimberly to retain their library director, who was considering taking a job with the larger Little Chute
- A joint agreement was decided to be a logical approach
Benefits
- Each village would be financially responsible for the remodeling and construction of their individual library buildings
- Two villages would share a library director and staff
Results
- Two villages share a staff that rotates between the two libraries, thus increasing the number and specialities of employees available at both sites Merger allowed additional full-time and part-time staff members to be hired
- Village of Kimberly is the ficscal leader of the project because it had an established library and because the library director was familiar with Kimberly's personnel and budget procedures
- Deemed a success by both villages. It is one of the few joint library systems nationwide that has more than one building
- Decrease in library budget, but increase in the amount of service delivered - more books and resources available, greater staffing
- Reduced (or eliminated) capital costs of starting a system from scratch
- Little Chute assessed 60% of the total costs since it is the larger of the two municiaplities
- Modern and convenient libraries Staff enjoys being able to work in both locations
- Number of library cards on file increased about 3,000 from 1994 to 2000
- Formation of Joint Library Board
Web Site
http://www.kimlit.org/
Contact
- Kimberly-Little Chute Library Director Barbara Wentzel
- Little Chute Vilalge Administrator Thomas Lebak
- Little Chute Finance Director Dale Haug
- Kimberly Administrator Rick Hermus
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