Baldwin Spars With Bloomfield Township Library Over Borrowing Decision

The Bloomfield Township Library is cutting off circulation privileges for the residents of Beverly Hills and Bingham Farms, and officials are not happy about it.

And if Bloomfield Township doesn’t do anything about it, Baldwin director Doug Koschik said the library could potentially eliminate special borrowing privileges for Bloomfield Township residents.

At the board meeting for the Bloomfield Township Public Library (BTPL) April 26, trustees voted to rescind circulation privileges to all contract communities, including Beverly Hills and Bingham Farms, both of which currently have contracts with Baldwin.

BTPL will, however, continue lending materials to residents of communities that have their own libraries, such as Birmingham. Such a relationship has existed between the two libraries for 40 years, Koschik said.

The decision, said Baldwin library board vice president Andrew Harris, is bad timing, especially considering Gov. Rick Snyder’s call for municipalities to share services.

“The BTPL singled out, without valid basis, one particular group of communities that chose to contract with another community for library services, instead of having their own libraries,” he said. “The BTPL board’s decision not to allow contract communities to check out materials, no matter how much financial support they provide their libraries, comes at a time when our current state government urges more support of sharing services among local municipalities.”

According to BTPL board member Peggy Cohen, withdrawing borrowing privileges for non-residents is a "heart-wrenching decision."

"However, we have spent the last two years limiting library usage to our residents, who are paying taxes for the services at BTPL, by being open fewer days, purchasing fewer new materials, discontinuing the library newsletter," she said. "The Library Board of Trustees' first responsibility is to serve our community and provide the best library services to township taxpayers."

According to BTPL library director Karen Kotulis-Carter, the decision is strictly an economical one. Non-resident usage at the library is currently 20 percent, but the library is still trying to make up for the approximately $1 million cut since the 2008 budget.

"Our hopes are that this is a temporary restriction," she said.

Should BTPL move forward with its decision to rescind borrowing privileges for Beverly Hills and Bingham Farms, Koschik said Baldwin will continue to check out materials to Bloomfield Township residents, but with a limit of eight items. In addition, Bloomfield Township residents will have to pay higher, non-resident fees and Baldwin will discontinue free delivery service to the township’s homebound residents, a service offered for Baldwin patrons.

The scuffle comes at a time when Baldwin is in the midst of . Baldwin’s library board has been haggling with the city since March over providing library services for the approximately 4,000 Bloomfield Hills residents who have been without a library of their own for seven years. Residents there voted against renewing the city’s contract with BTPL in November.

Whereas that fight is more over price, the disagreement with BTPL is more than that, Koschik said. It’s about recognizing the history between the two libraries.

The Baldwin library board sent a formal letter to BTPL May 16, with the intention of bringing it before the BTPL board at its meeting May 17. Kotulis-Carter said the letters were distributed to board members. She would not comment yet, however, saying she wanted to give BTPL trustees time to review the letter.

Kotulis-Carter said BTPL isn’t sure of the timeframe for a response, noting that their next meeting is (June 21) but things might take a little longer if the request goes to the BTPL policy committee. The soonest BTPL could implement restricted borrowing privileges is June 1.