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Friends of Reston Regional Library Donate $200,000 to FCPL

June 13, 2022

RESTON, Va. – Fairfax County Supervisor Walter L. Alcorn, Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) leadership and dozens of library supporters were on hand Wednesday, June 8 as the FCPL Board of Trustees accepted a $200,00 gift from the Friends of Reston Regional Library. “The Friends of the Reston Regional Library are amazing, hard-working community advocates who donate generously." said FCPL Director Jessica Hudson. The group’s funds are raised primarily through used book sales. The gift will be invested in FCPL’s collection, benefitting cardholders throughout the county. "At $3 million, county funding for collection building is below the recommended level of 20% of the library's total budget," said Frances Millhouser, chair of the Fairfax County Public Library Board of Trustees. A majority of the gift will be invested in FCPL’s digital collection, which experienced explosive and sustained growth in recent years. FCPL’s collection budget is unable to meet community demand in large part because more cardholders are checking out digital materials. In May 2022, just over 51,000 unique users checked out items from the library’s physical collection while the digital collection saw about 46,150 unique users in the same time period. Those digital users are all borrowing from a collection of slightly under 228,000 items while the physical collection contains more than 1.8 million items. These numbers show the digital collection works hard; digital titles are placed on hold and checked out more frequently than their physical counterparts. Laws around eBook licensing mean digital materials also cost more than their physical counterparts. FCPL collection services staff plans to invest the gift in ways that benefit the maximum number of cardholders, including purchasing Simultaneous Use eAudio packages, acquiring more perpetual use licenses and expanding the Lucky Day collection, which offers popular titles to cardholders for two weeks and does not permit holds or renewals. Some areas of FCPL’s physical collection do work as hard as our digital collection; FCPL collection services staff plans to spend a portion of this gift on board books, Read-Alongs and other materials for young readers as well as Spanish-language materials.

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Read and Feed

March 28, 2022

For several years, Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) has hosted a “Food for Fines” drive each fall as a way of facilitating food donations to our partner organization, Food for Others, which offers library cardholders a reduction on their fines. As of Jan. 1, FCPL no longer charges overdue fines on most materials. To continue its partnership with Food for Others, FCPL is now hosting “Read and Feed” in April. Those who wish to give may simply drop off donations at any FCPL branch during its regular hours throughout the month of April. Most needed items include: Oil Cereal Canned tomato products (crushed, peeled, diced, etc.), 4 oz. – 1 lb. Canned meat (chicken, turkey, or seafood), 2 oz. – 15 oz. Rice, 16 oz. packages Spaghetti sauce, 14 oz. – 1 lb. (ideally in cans instead of glass) Canned fruit (packed in fruit juice instead of syrup) 11 oz. – 20 oz. Dried or canned beans (black, kidney, pinto, etc.) Pasta Fruit juice (100% juice) 32 oz. – 64 oz. New or clean reusable grocery bags Can openers Food for Others is unable to accept donations of: Items that are more than three years expired, opened items, food that is not labeled, homemade items, cooked food, or toiletries.

Congratulations; Staff Excellence Awards

Annual Staff Excellence Awards Presented to FCPL Staff Members

March 11, 2022

The Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) Board of Trustees on Wednesday evening honored several staff members with its annual Staff Excellence Awards. Library users nominated their favorite staff members this February, and a board committee selected winners from nearly 150 nominations recognizing staff members from 12 branches and FCPL’s administrative services. Board members introduced each winner and shared an excerpt from their nomination during Wednesday’s virtual meeting. 2022 FCPL Staff Excellence Award Winners Vicki Corcoran, information assistant at Richard Byrd Library Renee Edwards, programming and educational services director at FCPL Administrative Services Kelly Gilbert, youth services assistant at Chantilly Regional Library Jane Girondo, early literacy assistant at FCPL Administrative Services Robert Harsher, reader’s advisor at Access Services Jill Johnson, branch manager at Burke Centre Library Christine Jones, branch manager at Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library Rebecca LaPlante, assistant branch manager at Pohick Regional Library Christine Lomax, page manager at Woodrow Wilson Library Elaine McRey, librarian at City of Fairfax Regional Library Kim Nguyen, library aide at Burke Centre Library Shazia Shehryar, page manager at Oakton Library Rebecca Takacs, youth services assistant at Reston Regional Library Anita Toth, youth services assistant at Burke Centre Library Erica Tran, library aide at John Marshall Library Maree Watkins, librarian at City of Fairfax Reginal Library Nora Wickert, information assistant at Dolley Madison Library

FCPL Board of Trustees Approves Move to Fine-Free Library Service Model

December 9, 2021

At its Dec. 8 virtual meeting, the Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) Board of Trustees approved a new policy that ends the practice of charging overdue fines on most library materials. "The FCPL Board of Trustees has approved eliminating fines on most library materials and joins surrounding jurisdictions in removing this significant barrier to equitable access to information and library services," said FCPL Board of Trustees Chair Fran Millhouser. Library staff members are working to ensure the system is set to forgive fines already incurred and stop imposing most fines beginning around Jan. 1, 2022. Overdue fines remain in effect for some special collections and interlibrary loan materials. “Equity is driving our shift to a fine-free model of library services; we don’t want accrual of overdue fines to deter anyone who wants to use the library,” said FCPL Director Jessica Hudson. FCPL analysis showed that overdue fines disproportionately affected young people and those in low-income areas. Pre-pandemic, “blocked” cards (accounts not allowed to check out materials due to having more than $15 in fines) were about 17% of the total cardholder population. “Blocked” youth cards (accounts for users under the age of 18) were 23% of the youth cardholder population. “Blocked” card numbers are higher in areas served by Reston Regional Library (Hunter Mill District), City of Fairfax Regional Library, George Mason Regional Library (Mason District), Kingstowne Library (Mt. Vernon/Lee District) and Sherwood Regional Library (Mt. Vernon District). There appears to be a link between low-income communities and higher numbers of blocked library accounts. Library systems around the nation, including in all neighboring counties, have gone fine-free and experienced surges in returned materials. These systems have also found that their cardholders continue to return materials on time, even without the threat of fines, Hudson said. FCPL’s special collections that will continue to incur overdue fines include but are not limited to: interlibrary loan materials, Chromebooks and mobile hotspots.

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