Two-county system will be renamed Toe River Valley Regional Library
Noreen Nickolas
MNJ Correspondent
A 64-year alliance between Yancey County and the Avery-Mitchell-Yancey Regional Library System (AMY) will end, on July 1, 2025.
According to regional administration, AMY is determined despite feelings of sadness and regret to make the transition as smooth as possible so that Yancey County is left with a functional library and their patrons are being served.
At a recent AMY Board Meeting regional Director Amber Westall Briggs confirmed that Yancey County’s plan to leave the system is moving forward.
“Yancey County is withdrawing from the AMY regional library system,” said Briggs. “We all know that. We know that that is their intention. I believe that they will not change their minds.”
AMY was formed in 1961 with the help of Dorothy Thomas, the first professionally trained librarian who had served the three counties since 1948. With Thomas’ guidance, AMY became a regional library system that ensured the counties would receive additional state funding and services.
The movement to pull out of the regional system began in June 2023. According to reports some community members complained about a Pride Month display at the county’s library and Yancey County Commissioner Jeff Whitson, at a board meeting shortly thereafter, directed County Manager Lynn Austin to begin withdrawing Yancey from the library system.
Since then, despite standing-room-only meetings at the courthouse, hundreds of citizens coming together in solidarity walks, and the policy changes the library’s regional office made, Yancey continued moving forward with its plans to withdraw.
Negotiations are ongoing
Yancey County and the regional system have a contract in place that needs to be settled.
The regional office is in Yancey County’s name.
“So we’re negotiating to see how long we can stay here (in the office),” Briggs said. “We are negotiating bookmobile services to help Yancey continue this year by giving full services to everyone.”
Figuring out who owns which books is a challenge.
“We did an inventory at Yancey for all items purchased in the last five years,” said Briggs.
The assessment covered about 3,000 items worth around $26,000.
“It’s still under negotiation,” Briggs said. “It gives like a snapshot of how much funds are in the collection that were spent with regional state aid.”
The regional system decided it would keep up to 2,000 of the very expensive outreach materials, Briggs said.
“Those are books that are large print materials. The print is larger specifically for people with vision impairments or just aging and they need to have something that’s in larger print,” Briggs explained.
There were rumors floating around the community that Yancey would lose its computer lab.
“Yancey’s computer lab was purchased with donation funds. It was not purchased through regional funding. So, they will keep their computer lab,” Briggs said.
Materials are purchased with state aid funds which are distributed equally. But in some cases, like with Yancey County Public Library, they have funds from sources other than the state. Which means those materials or programming purchased with donations are Yancey’s, Briggs said.
Contractually, “Whatever items were purchased with regional state aid stays with the region and whatever was purchased with local funds, stays with the library if a county or town withdraws,” Briggs said.
Yancey has asked to amend the contract so that whatever materials were bought with state and local funds can stay with the library. Their request is still being negotiated.
“At first, I was not happy with this. I felt like in many ways Yancey withdrew you follow the contract . . . but if we all sit together and we try to evaluate the landscape we’re all a part of . . . do we want to fight about what materials were purchased with state funds or what was purchased with donations, or do we want Yancey County to have a library for their patrons,” Briggs said. “We just want to move forward.”
The financial impact of withdrawing
Leaving the regional system will have a financial impact on Yancey County and the regional library system as well.
“The money each county and town gives to their library is roughly around $100,000,” Briggs said.
That money pays for library staff, insurance, and benefits, its facility, and utilities. The only regional service Yancey and the other three libraries pay for is the bookmobile librarian’s position. They do not pay for any other services the regional system provides, Briggs said.
On the flip side, once Yancey leaves the system, the system will lose money, Briggs said.
The intent of state aid is to equalize services in lower economic communities, Briggs said. The aid provides services and resources that are as good as a larger system that has more money.
“So, when a county or town leaves and withdraws, they can apply for that state aid themselves as a county library, but they’re going to take away funding that we use to run the regional system,” Briggs said. “So, yes, we will lose about $100,000.”
Picking up the tab
Withdrawing from the library system also means that Yancey County will have to pay for resources that the regional system has provided for free.
They will not have the programming and material support that the regional system provides. They will lose the children’s librarian. They will lose outreach services.
“Jamie McCabe, who is the bookmobile outreach librarian, takes the outreach van to visit people who are home-bound,” Briggs said.
They will lose a director and have to pay for a director themselves. They will have to hire someone for marketing. They will need an individual for cataloging services.
“Each of our individual libraries does cataloging. Our head cataloger, who is located at the Avery library, has a master’s degree in library science,” Briggs said. “So, they lose cataloging services.”
AMY is part of the NC Cardinal system. This statewide system allows libraries to share books. The first two years the membership is funded. After that the annual cost is based upon the size of the library’s collection and patron base.
Patrons request local books from across the state and local readers request books from other parts of the state, Briggs said. Which means the library has to have someone to keep track of the books that come in and the books that need to be shipped out.
Libby is an app that Yancey may have to pay for, where readers can enjoy e-books, digital audiobooks, and magazines from the public library. All you need to get started is a library card, Briggs explained.
“We pay almost $7,000 a year for it,” Briggs said. “It is probably the patron’s favorite thing . . . because it’s free e-books and free audiobooks. It’s very popular.”
Other services that Yancey will need to pay separately for are things like a movie license, if the library wants to hold a movie night, Briggs said, and Beanstack, which costs about $2,500 a year. Kids use Beanstack to keep track of books they’ve read and can receive prizes during the summer’s reading program.
“We purchase Ancestry.com on our own as a regional system,” Briggs said. “Which allows patrons to do genealogical research at the library.”
Moving forward
A lot needs to be done before July 1.
AMY’s name will be changing to the Toe River Valley Regional Library. The new regional system includes Avery and Mitchell counties and Spruce Pine libraries.
A new regional office building needs to be found and set up and the current office which is filled with books, boxes, and other library items from floor to ceiling will need to be moved.
But for Briggs her most urgent priority now is “marketing, changing our name, because it’s on everything, changing our logo, and changing our information with the government,” she said. “That is the biggest thing looming – changing all of that so that we’re ready to go July 1.”
This area is unique as a region in that almost 70 percent of the population are library card holders,” Briggs said.
The new regional office has decided that Yancey library patrons are welcome to use their neighboring libraries but will need to get new library cards from the Toe River Valley Regional Library system.
For Briggs and many Yancey residents the last two and a half years have been filled with frustration, uncertainty and appreciation.
Ingrid Ringler, a Yancey County resident expressed her frustration and appreciation at how the withdrawal has been handled.
“I really appreciate the grace you’ve been putting forward to making this senseless transition as easy as it can be . . . and I just want to be clear . . . we do not support the commissioners’ decision in this . . . you are not the only ones they’ve been refusing to have discussions with, so we’re doing what we can and we appreciate all that you guys do,” Ringler said.
Briggs said her focus has been and always will be on providing the community with the books they love and want to read. And that in spite of what happened two years ago, the regional board did its job: They created a policy to make sure that the library wouldn’t have any situation that is similar to that again. And they did it without infringing on First Amendment rights, Briggs said.
Looking ahead “I will work with Yancey County throughout this process to make sure they withdraw and that they have an existing library,” Briggs said. “I will make certain that I also am focusing my attention on Avery, Mitchell and Spruce Pine as the existing library system — yes, that is where our attention is going.”
Austin, the Yancey County manager, did not respond when asked to comment via email.