SEBASTIAN — Shirley Wolstenholme is leaving the North County Library, retiring from the Indian River County Library System after 27 ½ years, and doesn’t know what will become of the 32 programs she has organized for each month.
While technology has been one major change she has seen sweep through the library over the years, it isn’t the biggest one – finances are.
“We had plenty of money” years ago, Wolstenholme says. She didn’t have to worry about having enough money to buy materials to provide the books schools placed on their summer reading lists. Now?
“Will I have enough money for this?” Wolstenholme asks herself every time she gets a request for reading materials. “That is a concern. It didn’t use to be.”
At the end of May, that question and concern will no longer be Wolstenholme’s.
Instead, it’s possible that the concern could fall on someone else within the library system.
Worse, she’s doesn’t want to see someone based in Vero Beach making decisions for the Sebastian library.
“I wish North County had a bigger presence,” she says, adding that she feels the Sebastian library sometimes gets overlooked.
The North County Library’s budget has been cut 10 percent since the 2009-10 fiscal year, while the Main Library’s budget has been cut 18 percent, but the Main Library still gets roughly 200 percent the funding given to North County.
Staffing levels have dropped. The Sebastian library lost one employee position since 2009-10; the Vero Beach library cut four, but Vero still has 21 employees to Sebastian’s 11.
Assistant County Administrator Mike Zito, who oversees the library system, says he hasn’t yet come up with a game plan for dealing with Wolstenholme’s retirement.
“We’re always looking for opportunities to consolidate,” Zito says.
Though, he adds, he will “naturally consider” a replacement.
“The level of service is pretty high,” Wolstenholme says. “I’m just afraid.”
To alleviate her fears, Wolstenholme went ahead and booked and paid for the special visitors such as magicians, storytellers and musicians who will come to the library on Fridays over the summer.
While Wolstenholme is concerned that the programs she developed and organized might fall to the wayside, Zito says no changes in the North County Library’s level of service are planned.
“Our goal is to maintain the level of service,” he says.
According to Zito, the library has several staff levels, which could yield someone from within to take over the programming.
“We’ll just find that right person,” Zito says. “It’s not an easy task.”
“That sounds more promising than I had thought,” Wolstenholme says after hearing what Zito is considering.
Another possibility, according to Zito, could be asking the library’s network of volunteers to step up.
“They are so well organized,” he says of the Friends of the Library at the North County Library, which has been a large part of the library’s success.
Wolstenholme says the best case scenario would be to promote their part-time librarian to full-time who could then handle the programming.
“You can’t just delegate” the programming, Wolstenholme says. There are qualifications that need to be met.
Wolstenholme has a Bachelors degree in Elementary Education and a Masters in Education Media.
Under Wolstenholme, the North County Library has offered Baby Time, Toddler Time, Story Time, and Twilight Tales, to name a few.
She also has worked with Sebastian River High School’s International Baccalaureate program who need service hours; she visits Head Start programs and even area elementary schools as requested.
“It’s energy,” Wolstenholme says of working with the children for nearly three decades. “They are amazing. I’m very fortunate.”
She loves instilling in the children the joy of reading and learning.
“They’re learning and they don’t even realize it,” Wolstenholme says.
Wolstenholme has no idea the number of children she’s reached over the years through her programs.
In the summer, though, she knows the special events bring in 4,000 kids and their families.
“It’s been a joy,” she says. She and her husband, who also works for the Indian River County government, have both decided this is the time for them to retire.
“We want to travel more,” Wolstenholme says.
