Consultant Services for Centralizing Library Operations

Washington County Cooperative Library Services (WCCLS) is seeking a firm to help our library cooperative move from a distributed system for collection management and technical services (where each library performs these functions independently) to a centralized system (where WCCLS will be responsible for these functions). This work will require a contractor who has experience working with multi-agency consortia, leading co-design processes with stakeholders, creating library workflows and technical specifications, and supporting implementation of those workflows.  The contractor will work under the direction of WCCLS and work closely with our project team, beginning work in January 2026 with a deadline of centralizing collection management and purchasing at WCCLS by July 1, 2027. The contractor may be asked to continue supporting implementation and refining processes through June 2028.

Public library service in Washington County is delivered through a cooperative partnership between Washington County Cooperative Library Services (WCCLS), a department of Washington County, nine cities, and three nonprofit organizations. This partnership is known as the cooperative. The cooperative, established in 1976, links 16 library locations into a countywide system through funding, infrastructure, and services provided by WCCLS.

The cooperative is bound together by intergovernmental agreements, and WCCLS is governed by the Washington County Board of Commissioners. The WCCLS Executive Board (composed of city and nonprofit executive leadership) is advisory to the Board of County Commissioners, and the WCCLS Policy Group (composed of directors from member libraries) is advisory to the WCCLS Executive Board and WCCLS leadership.

Funding for WCCLS comes from a transfer from Washington County’s General Fund and a voter-approved local option levy, which expires in June 2026. A proposed replacement levy on the ballot in November 2025 would increase funding, which would be available through FY 2030-31. Even with increased levy revenue, resources continue to be constrained, due to costs increasing faster than statutorily allowed property tax increases.

WCCLS and its partners are engaged in a multi-year funding and governance evaluation process to develop a new funding allocation methodology and refine cooperative governance. The library cooperative has an opportunity to find efficiencies by providing more services centrally, which reduces costs while maintaining service levels. Collection management and technical services emerged as the biggest opportunity for the cooperative since each library currently manages its own selection, acquisition, cataloging, processing, and interlibrary loan service. WCCLS and partner agency leaders determined that centralizing these operations would allow partners to adjust staffing resources locally to support local strategic priorities, while having WCCLS take on this work would allow service levels to be maintained.

In February 2025, the Washington County Board of Commissioners supported the recommendation from the funding and governance process to centralize these operations. The transition must be completed by July 1, 2027, in order to support planned staffing transitions at local libraries, and to realize efficiencies for the system. This transition will include centralizing:

• Selection, ordering, and acquisition
• Cataloging, classification, and processing
• Deselection and collection maintenance
• Interlibrary loan and purchase requests

Washington County residents value both the unique character of their local libraries and the convenience of a well-integrated countywide system. Member library staff are highly skilled professionals with deep community ties and strong local collections. This transition presents both an opportunity and a challenge: to implement large-scale operational changes while maintaining service quality and access.