Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 27, 1990 TAG: 9003272183
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: BLAND LENGTH: Medium
Bland is the only Southwest Virginia county without a public library building. It has been served since 1972 by a bookmobile from the Smyth County Public Library in Marion.
Cathy Reynolds, regional library director, asked the Bland County Board of Supervisors Monday for a letter of support for a federal grant she is writing on a books-by-mail project for the county. The board voted 3-1 to give it to her.
George E. Schaeffer Jr. voted against the letter because, he said, he questioned whether Bland County was getting its money's worth from the Smyth-Bland regional setup and that he might suggest that Bland pull out of the region.
Bland County provides more than $15,800 for the regional library operation, and will be asked to increase that by 10 percent for the 1990-91 fiscal year.
"I have always been against the library, as I'm sure you all know, but I've always been outvoted," said Gary W. Nelson, but he added that the mail project would help Bland if it stays in the region. He joined Chairman Fay H. Lambert and William R. Ramsey in voting for it.
The Lonesome Pine Regional Library has provided paperbacks by mail to readers in Wise, Lee, Scott and Dickenson counties for the last 10 years. Tazewell County got a two-year grant last July for a similar program serving Tazewell, Russell and Buchanan counties.
The way the program works is that catalogs listing several hundred available books of various types are mass-mailed to the area to be served. Residents who want to use the program can return already-stamped postcards to the library marking their selections. The books are mailed to them, along with a stamped return-mail envelope for use when they are finished and a new card to order some more.
The program would cover the 25-to-65-year age group largely missed by the bookmobile, and also new adult readers, Reynolds said. It could tie in with the library's literacy program that may be expanded to Bland County.
by CNB