Larkspur Library Board · meeting of Monday, Nov. 3
Ebook checkout cap drops from 25 to 15 as board pushes for a bigger digital budget
Starting Nov. 1, Larkspur patrons can check out 15 items a month through Libby instead of 25, a change made by Marinet and the Libby vendor to spread a limited digital collection across more readers facing long hold lists. The library director delivered the news as an informational item at Monday's Library Board meeting; no vote was taken.
“The interesting part is with that is that ebooks are very popular and so this is this will impact some of our patrons who are using one of our most popular feature.”— Library Director, on the reduced Libby limit
The squeeze is a money problem as much as a policy one. Larkspur spends about $1,500 a year on ebooks — against roughly $300,000 spent by the county across its 10 libraries — and the director said the city's own patron use and budget suggest a figure closer to $15,000 would be appropriate. Staff is working on a new funding formula to expand the offering, with the reduced cap described as a first step.
Board members weren't entirely satisfied with rationing as the answer. One suggested buying more copies of the most popular titles rather than capping borrowers; another argued the ideal is a combination — lower the per-patron maximum while raising total availability with a bigger spend. A member also cautioned against designing the rules around patrons who check out more than they read.
The board asked staff to come back with fuller ebook figures and usage data at its next meeting, set for Dec. 8 (moved off the usual second-Monday slot because of the holidays).
Larkspur Library Board · meeting of Monday, Nov. 3
Draft programming policy raises a question: who controls the new library's community rooms?
The bulk of Monday's meeting went to a first pass at a written library programming policy. The director laid out draft core principles: programs should be free and open to all, promote literacy and community, and exclude commercial sales, partisan and religious content, recruiting, and hate speech. Age restrictions would be framed as guidelines rather than hard limits — a change one member asked for directly.
“If you could replace the word 'limits' with 'guidelines,' I'd be very happy.”— A Library Board member, on age restrictions in the draft policy
Board members pushed on the language. One questioned a clause invoking "Larkspur values," saying that kind of declaration seems like it should come from a broader body such as the City Council rather than the library. Another liked tying programming back to the library's mission: not just a place to be entertained, but a place to be introduced to something you can then research on your own. Members also rejected the idea of limiting programs to Larkspur residents, arguing it would clip the library's wings without solving its space problem.
The discussion kept circling back to the new building, where three community rooms — the large Rosenberger Room, a medium and a small — are controlled by the city, not the library, alongside four library study rooms. Members said a separate room-use policy is needed, spelling out a priority sequence and who resolves conflicts, and floated reservation software such as LibCal, used by other Marin libraries. Transparency was a recurring theme: the public should be able to see the rules and the reasoning behind them.
No vote was taken. The director will draft a written policy incorporating the feedback and bring it back — ideally in December, with the full board present and a list of past and proposed programs and their room needs in hand.