Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette The Hancock School Public Library has an entrance permitting public entry to the library without having to enter through the school entrance.

HANCOCK — As contract renewal talks between Hancock Public Schools and the Portage Lake District Library continue, the primary question from the standpoint of the School Board is can Hancock Public Schools financially afford to continue with partnership.

In 1994, Michigan legislation prevented school districts from levying mils to support libraries. When funding was restored in 2018, HPS made its first substantial library funding in more than 20 years. In August 2018, HPS and PLDL initiated a three-year contract under which PLDL would oversee all of the Hancock library’s operations. This included administrative, operational, financial and programming services.

According to data from PLDL, the investment has paid a high rate of return. Between 2018 and 2022, more than 548 new library cards were created, bringing the total number of users to 1,174. It has increased since these data were released.

During the contract period, annual checkout of library materials increased 166% and in a 12-month period between 2021 and 2022, library users checked out an average of 10.5 checkouts per user. In the four-period, 5,513 new items were added to the collection, and since then the nonfiction section has been expanded, a children’s reading room, and additional e-content has been added.

Additionally, programming services have included early literacy story times and programs to ensure school readiness; year-round youth activities that inspire learning and exploration; flourishing summer reading programs for all ages; multi-media labe and circulation kits for STEM-focuses projects.

Because the library is also a district library, it has also had to increase its attractiveness to the non-student district population.

The Hancock School Public library is, as the name states, both a school library and a public library, or two branches of the Hancock Library housed in the same space. Because the facility is located in the school, the School District is financially responsible for it, even though it serves not only the school district and the city of Hancock, but also the townships of Hancock, Quincy and Franklin.

According to District Library Law, school districts cannot join a library district. At the regular May 2023 meeting of Hancock City Council, PLDL Director Katrina Linde-Moriarty said that having a municipality’s library in a school is rare. Only about a dozen such libraries are left in Michigan, all in the Upper Peninsula.

“You can’t even create them anymore,” Linde-Moriarty said. “They’re all grandfathered in.”

The Daily Mining Gazette reported that Linde-Moriarty suggested that the council consider taking steps toward a new district library space separate from the Hancock High School. The district library’s Hancock branch is in the Hancock High School library, said Linde-Moriarty. It is used by residents within the Hancock school district, which includes the city and three neighboring townships.

The question for the Hancock Board of Education has become one of financial sustainability.

“I think from the aspect of the board,” said HPS Superintendent Chris Salani, “especially with the board being more new, I don’t know if that’s going to be a pressure point for us to say OK, it’s not sustainable with the partnership we have so the library should go out and look at this option and reach out to the community.”

“I think right now, we’re in the process of information exchange and … awareness of just what the operational needs are for the library and what that means for us as a district.”

Salani said that the contract renewal is due at the end of June to align with the school district’s fiscal cycle so there is still a little time to gather more answers.

“So it’s one of those things where we’re not banging on a door trying to get answers right now or to say what’s going to happen,” Salani said. “It’s more like we know we have to continue this conversation with the library. We have to look at how we can maintain the support or look at other avenues, whether it be internal or external. I think that’s the biggest piece right now.”

[This the first of a two-part series. Part Two will examine options open to the HSPL moving forward.]