Copyright Boulder Daily Camera
By Doug Hamilton We are the members of the Boulder Public Library District’s Board of Trustees, appointed by a joint committee of City Council members and County Commissioners for five-year terms. We serve in a volunteer capacity to ensure that the District meets the needs of the community. And we are proud to announce, three years in, that the District has fulfilled each and every promise laid out in the ballot language from November 2022. This November marks three years since the Boulder community chose to fully fund our library system, moving it out from under the City’s budget, and converting it into the Boulder Public Library District, like most Colorado libraries. This achievement is capped off by the recent opening of a brand-new Gunbarrel branch. It’s the first freestanding library in the history of Gunbarrel and a much-needed public space in a community with no other public parks or community spaces. Located at 6500 Lookout Avenue, across the street from King Soopers, Gunbarrel Library is fully operational, with three meeting rooms, multiple independent workspaces, a children’s area, computers, and the ability to pick up books on hold. It even boasts a “bank vault” reading room with original fiber artwork. Please come and check it out! Here’s what else the District has delivered to voters, as outlined in the ballot language: • Expanded literacy programs: Boulder Reads, our adult literacy program, has nearly doubled the number of adult learning pairs, and we’ve expanded Reading Buddies, our children’s literacy program. • New libraries: In addition to the new Gunbarrel Library, we opened the long-planned NoBo Library last year, complete with a new Makerspace and children’s playground. • More public meeting rooms: We added eight new meeting and study rooms across our libraries. • More reading materials: We nearly doubled the budget for books and other materials. • Expanded access: With the District’s investment in over 60 new employees, all Boulder libraries are now open seven days a week again. We also reopened the archives at the Carnegie Library for Local History two days a week, with expanded research appointment hours. • Improved safety: Security incidents are substantially down across all libraries thanks to strategic, long-term investments in staffing, training and safety measures. Beyond our ballot promises, the District formed with the conviction that it would become an employer of choice — a rare thing in the library world. We increased average wages for many workers by more than 20%, increased our minimum wage to $22.42/hour, and expanded many staff benefits, like paid time off and sick leave. We are proud that our excellent staff have one of the best pay and benefits packages for public library workers in the state and that 98% of the city library employees transitioned to the District. Our amazing and dedicated library staff work each and every day to deliver excellent service to this community. And in turn, this community understands the value of the library as a shared public space and as a foundation for the values of literacy, diversity, equity and inclusion. We are very proud of our library District. At the same time, the District is not immune to the current economic reality being faced by publicly funded entities across the state and the country. Boulder, Denver and Aurora — to name a few — have all had to make hard cuts to their budgets for the coming year. Our library budget for 2026 will also include cuts because of flat or lowered property values and state legislation in 2024 that reduced property tax receipts across the state by an estimated $1 billion, reducing the Library District’s revenue by about $1 million. We take our responsibility as stewards of public funds very seriously as a public board. Our job is to plan carefully, assess risk and weather downturns — like the one we are entering now — while we ensure that our libraries are continuing to deliver their promise to the community. Our public hearing on the budget is at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in the Boulder Creek Room, Main Library. Please review our budget, and let us know what you think. In times of economic strain, library use by the public tends to go up. That is why our core commitment to the highest quality library services is unwavering, despite some budget cuts. Libraries connect us. They help us see each other. They help us understand each other and our world. They are a treasured “third space” for anyone to enjoy. And they belong to all of us. We are so grateful to this community for supporting its libraries and for allowing us to deliver these services that are so critical to our community’s health and well-being. We look forward to continuing the careful stewardship of this precious resource for many generations to come. Doug Hamilton is writing on behalf of the Boulder Library District Board of Trustees, which includes himself, Sylvia Wirba, Nadine Struzziero, Andy Sayler, Cara O’Brien, Benita Duran and Tom Cosgrove.
