Genealogical Library Won't Have Director Soon | TheLedger.com

The position was frozen after Joe Spann, the Bartow facility’s director for two decades, left in August. The six-month hiring freeze lasts through April 1, said Gladys Roberts, director of the Polk County Library Cooperative, which oversees the library.

It’s unclear what will happen after that, Roberts said.

The Historical and Genealogical Library, which opened in 1940, is housed in the old courthouse at 100 E. Main St., officially known as the Polk County History Center. The library, regarded by genealogists as one of the best in the Southeast, has a collection of about 42,000 documents.

The center has computers that allow residents to search genealogical archives.

The library has no permanent funding source, and the Polk County Commission has struggled in recent years to supply its budget. For years, both the library and the Polk County Historical Museum drew funding from county court filing fees, but the state Legislature established new rules for how such fees could be distributed. That change meant the library could no longer receive such funding.

The trust fund established by the court fees ran out in April 2011.

The County Commission passed a resolution in 2010 recognizing the library and museum as a “permanent fixture in the educational and cultural life of Polk County” but did not establish continuous funding for the library. The commission has designated money from general funds since 2011 to support the library, Roberts said.

The commission reduced the library’s budget by $40,000 this fiscal year. That cut likely would have forced a layoff, Roberts said, had it not been for the coincidental timing of Spann’s decision to take another job in Tennessee last August.

The Historical and Genealogical Library’s annual budget is $180,853, of which $164,364 is allotted for personnel. The library now has a staff of three — a senior library assistant and two library assistants.

“It’s an extremely small operating budget.” Roberts said. “We are below bare bones.”

The Polk County Library Cooperative, established in 1997, is directed by a governing board consisting of representatives from 13 city libraries and one from the county. The governing body meets bi-monthly, and Roberts said she expects a decision by March on whether to hire a new director.

“We are really fortunate that three full-time people that are left are just top of the line,” Roberts said. “They have done an admirable job keeping things running very smoothly.”