Library Services

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