In March 2006, Mayor Phil Hardberger and County Judge Nelson Wolff appointed a Joint Blue Ribbon Library District Commission. The City appointed 10 commission members and 1 ex-Officio member and the County appointed 5 commission members. As lead governmental entity in this initiative, the City of San Antonio appointed the majority of members on the commission.
The primary charge of the Library District Commission (LDC) is to “‘champion’ the process to build and then present the case for a successful transition of the current SA Public Library System to a Library District featuring sustainable funding”. Currently, the library is a City department and, although the City Council has consistently supported the library, it remains under-funded. The San Antonio Public Library ranks lowest among major Texas cities in expenditures on library items per capita and second to last in operating expenditures per capita. The library requires stable and sustainable funding in order to provide the level of service our community needs.
Since its creation, the LDC has conducted a complete analysis evaluating the state of the library and compared options to create a stronger library system.
On June 20, 2007, the Library District Commission completed their work and presented their final report with the findings and recommendations to the San Antonio City Council. Below you will find a link to the LDC’s final report.