Bonneville County Library District parting ways with Idaho Falls Public Library

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - The Bonneville County Library District and the Idaho Falls Public Library have ended their service agreement.

Rebecca Blackson with the Bonneville County Library District said it was not an easy decision.

"No one wanted to vote against the service contract," Blackson said. "It's just that we couldn't agree on the amount to pay."

Blackson said the library board rejected their final offer late in April.

"The city was adamant that we use circulation as a metric. And many of the trustees felt that put our number at too high where we didn't have ownership of any assets or branches or anything," Blackson said. "So we wanted to offer something lower, which was super close to what we've been paying at a million a year. And we feel that if you factor in what their actual expenses are, that we were paying an adequate amount. And so we had up for that. But then they declined it at their April 28th meeting, saying it wasn't high enough."

Blackson says after really looking at the numbers and options, they felt confident.

"We had done a lot of research, talked to the Idaho Commission for Libraries. We talked to other directors in the area, and felt that this was something we could do," Blackson said. "Of course, it's scary to go off on our own. We never wanted to cut everyone off from the amazing Idaho Falls Library so that's disappointing. But we feel like this is the better direction for the county to go because we're growing so much as a county and pretty soon will be even bigger than Idaho Falls."

Some residents, like Elisse Brady, are "devastated" at the news.

"Our kids have grown up there, and the resources are so great. We feel like it's a huge disservice to the community and a step in the wrong direction to no longer let all these families go to the library," Brady said.

Brady and her two kids go to the library "once a week and have been for seven years."

"We love the library. When my kids were babies, we'd go and pick outboard books for them, and then when they got a little older, they'd start picking out books for themselves and then move on to picture books," Brady said. "And they would stand next to the little growth chart on the wall to see how big they were compared to the baby animals. And then now we've moved on to chapter books and intermediate chapter books."

Blackson says they're in talks with a building for a library and have plans to open it in October 2022. And while it is a tight timeline, Blackson says they're confident it will happen.

But Brady isn't too sure.

"I think that's a very lofty goal to go from not having a location and not having any resources to an open, functioning library in October sounds pretty ambitious. I think even if they do manage to get it open, it just won't be a library like we're used to."

Those who live outside of Idaho Falls city limits can continue to use the library until September 30. They can also continue to use it after, if they buy a nonresident card for $120. It also doesn't allow for online services.

Brady says she may end up getting an Audible or Scribd account for her but doesn't like the idea of her kids using an e-reader

"My daughter likes to take a book with her in her bed when she's going to sleep. My son likes to take a book with him. So am I supposed to go buy e-readers for the kids or something? I don't want that. I wanted books to be not screen time," Brady explained.

Brady also says buying physical books will get pricey.

"When we go to the library, we get 30 to 40 books every week that we go because they blaze through them," Brady said. "Picture books don't take that long to read, and even some of these shorter chapter books. And we read them, you know, probably five or six times in the week that we had them. And then you bring them back and they probably never read the book again. So buying these books just doesn't seem feasible. It's too expensive. And if they're only going to read it five or six times, I'm not going to buy new books for them every week. That's just not a financially realistic option."

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