GUEST COLUMN: Jackson County Library District offers full support to Josephine Community Library District

Published 6:00 am Tuesday, January 21, 2025

For centuries, libraries have provided access to literature, philosophy, math and scientific information — first to the educated but then to the everyday citizen.

Today, libraries are much more than repositories of information. They are among communities’ most powerful resources, while simultaneously being among their most fragile.

We saw that fragility on display earlier this month when the Josephine County Board of Commissioners terminated the Grants Pass library branch’s lease agreement, which is now set for sunset on Feb. 6. This leaves “no recourse if the commissioners choose to evict the library from the building,” according to a Josephine Community Library District press release. Please do not underestimate how seriously this action would impact Grants Pass and surrounding communities.

Libraries are hubs for youth and adult programs and classes. The libraries offer space for community members to gather, and provide access Wi-Fi, computers and other technology resources, in addition to all the traditional materials. That technology also extends to materials, with a vast collection of ebooks, audiobooks, movies and TV shows available to utilize on smartphones and tablets at the push of a button. While libraries are not free of cost, that cost is shared across the community and not assessed to individual users in the library.

In the face of library closures in recent years by commissioners in Jackson and Josephine counties, the citizens of both counties have risen to create special districts to tax themselves to continue to provide all the services and resources that our citizens have come to expect from their libraries. The desire of our citizens to maintain robust libraries is indisputable.

The Jackson County Library District offers its full support to the Josephine Community Library District. We urge the Josephine County Board of Commissioners to meet with representatives of the Josephine Community Libraries to negotiate a reasonable agreement to continue providing library services at the current Grants Pass location.