ST. CHARLES COUNTY — As criticism mounts, including from city officials, over a plan to shutter three struggling library branches, board members have acknowledged that they “fell short on communicating the seriousness of our situation.”
In a statement Thursday by the St. Charles City-County Library Board, officials promised to hold public listening sessions on the proposed closures. And the statement came just hours before the O’Fallon City Council unanimously approved a resolution urging the library’s trustees to reconsider its planned closure of Kisker Road, McClay, and Deer Run library branches.
“This shows a total lack of leadership and insight to actually close libraries in a growing county like we are,” said Jim Ottomeyer, an O’Fallon council member who previously served as a board member for the library system’s foundation board, which fundraises on behalf of the library.
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O’Fallon is the first city in St. Charles County to oppose the closure, but more may follow suit. The St. Charles County Council has a similar resolution on the agenda for its May 28 meeting.
“We vow as a city to do everything we can to oppose this plan,” Ottomeyer said.
The closure plan, announced last week by St. Charles City-County Library District CEO Jason Kuhl, also calls for laying off 39 — mostly part-time — employees and leaving 25 vacant positions unfilled. It was met with swift and vocal opposition from residents. Library trustees ultimately voted to delay any action on the proposal for 30 days.
Deer Run is in northern O’Fallon along Main Street, while Kisker Road library is near Weldon Spring and McClay is in St. Charles.
The resolution adopted Thursday by the O’Fallon council noted that closure of Deer Run would would adversely affect families with children and O’Fallon residents with mobility issues.
“Several of us have heard from constituents who are angry with what the library is doing,” said councilwoman Linda Ragsdale.
Kuhl said last week the changes were necessary because the library system is facing financial problems caused in part by the rising costs of electronic books and streaming platforms that are increasingly popular with library patrons. The library pays $50,000 to $60,000 a month for streaming services due to user demand, Kuhl said.
In the statement Thursday, Kuhl and board president Staci Alvarez reiterated the changing financial outlook for the library system.
“We have seen changes in how our community uses our branches, the types of resources they seek and request, and the services they need from the library. We have seen a significant shift in how patrons are using our collection; specifically, an increase in the use of eMedia and a decline in the use of our physical resources,” the statement reads. “These changes in preferences of our patrons have impacted our financial resources and use of our facilities.”
St. Charles City-County Library is not the only library system grappling with the growing popularity — and costs — of electronic books. In a report published in December 2023, researchers with the American Library Association said libraries nationwide have seen a 34% increase in electronic book borrowing since 2019. As of 2023, nearly a third of Americans had read an e-book in the previous year, and a quarter of Americans had listened to an audio book.
And the shifts come as libraries are navigating a challenging landscape of lending and licensing e-books from book publishers and distributors. According to the ALA report, libraries typically pay three to four times the consumer price for an ebook or audiobook license of a popular title, even if that license later expires and needs to be renewed.
“These costs make it very expensive for libraries to license digital materials,” according to the report.
In the statement, Kuhl and Alvarez said the library’s leadership would be taking a “deeper look at expenditures, particularly electronic resources, to identify opportunities for cost savings” over the next month and beyond.
Both Kuhl and Alvarez say they are “committed to taking more time to make a decision that is the best interest of the library district and those we serve.”
The library’s trustees are scheduled to meet twice in June — a budget work session on June 6 and a regular meeting on June 18.
View life in St. Louis through the Post-Dispatch photographers’ lenses. Edited by Jenna Jones.
