By Kylie McQuarrie
In August 2024, with little publicity, Timberland Regional Library (TRL) announced that its Naselle branch was to become fully “staffless” and transition to an only self service library.
In a Facebook post, TRL explained that Naselle was “moving to a fully self-service model.” To continue receiving the library services their tax dollars paid for, Naselle residents would need to show proof of residency to apply for an electronic Expanded Access Hours (EAH) fob. They could then access the building from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., checking out books themselves.
Following the announcement, the surrounding community’s response was swift and unanimously severe. Some expressed disgust at their tax money being wasted on surveillance tech and superficial building updates as part of a plan to effectively eliminate service in Naselle.
TRL’s base union unit, AFSCME Local 3758, submitted an open letter to the board of trustees expressing similarly strong opposition. The union wrote, “Without library workers, Naselle can no longer be called a library.” They emphasized that in a rural library district, the library “[provided] a lifeline to places without many other services. Taking away library workers is devastating in those places.”
Thousands of Washington residents were poised to experience Naselle’s devastation for themselves when then-Executive Director Cheryl Heywood announced TRL’s catastrophic budget shortfall in January. Fortunately, massive public outcry triggered a long overdue change in leadership. Now, nearly two years after Naselle’s closure, a new administrative team has a plan to bring TRL’s trajectory in alignment with the public’s desires.
At a board retreat to discuss a levy lift last month, interim TRL director Andrea Heisel presented a draft of a staffing plan that showed exactly what would be done with the library’s first tax revenue increase in 25 years. In this plan, the Naselle branch would open its doors, host local programming, and (most importantly of all) reintegrate in-person librarians.
If the levy lift succeeds, TRL plans to increase open, staffed hours by 120+ hours a week across the district (31 of those hours belong to Naselle). Some money would likely go toward building repairs, but only to address safety and structural concerns. Funds would also be used to resume building the library’s collection; ideally, this would include putting books back on shelves in branches where residents have repeatedly asked for more books. Dozens of staff positions would be added to payroll, all of them frontline positions rather than administrative.
Of course, these changes are contingent on more than 50% of voters in the five-county system saying yes to TRL’s proposed increase.
If enough people vote no — which happened in 2009, the only other time TRL has gone out for a lift — the austerity-forward plan laid out by the ousted TRL administration will pan out after all. More branches will switch to an automated, staffless, EAH model, and the dozens of librarians whose jobs were recently saved will lose their livelihoods anyway. Communities in five counties will lose access to one of the last remaining “third spaces” where you have a right to exist free of charge, and everyone’s quality of life will drop as another democratic institution crumbles.
Whether you care about restoring Naselle’s community or preventing more Naselle-like closures, there’s one clear action you need to take by November 3: vote. And if you want to vote yes, a PAC supporting the lift, Yes for Libraries, is planning kick-off events this September. Sign up to show your support.