The Maine Library Commission, a 17-member board appointed by the Governor that is representative of the state’s library community and sets policies for the State Library, rolled out a draft rule that defines what Maine libraries must do to keep state‑supported services: such as van delivery for interlibrary loans, subsidized internet and web hosting and access to certain grants. The Maine Campus spoke directly with Lori Stockman, a Maine State Librarian, who explained what led the Maine Library Commission to draft the proposal in greater detail.
“What they asked the Maine State Library staff to do was take the current agreement and draft it into a rule,” Stockman said. “That’s what we’ve done.”
Stockman emphasized that the draft is only a starting point. It was presented at the commission’s March meeting, but she said there has been “minimal discussion” so far and commissioners are expected to begin real debate at a special meeting on April 6. She added that any final draft is “at least nine months to a year away” and public comment will be heard by the board.
Under the commission’s new proposal, a library that wants to stay in good standing with the state would need to submit regular written strategic plans, a review board for policies and clear minimum service standards. Libraries would also need to process more than 100 borrowed or loaned items per year to remain eligible for van service, with libraries mandated to sign Maine Regional Library System agreements every three years. Statewide support will be tied to meeting these specific planning, training, staffing and access benchmarks.
Stockman said the rulemaking process began after the Maine Attorney General’s Office told the commission that the Maine Regional Library System agreement, which has been in place since the 1980s, “is not legally enforceable.” In response, the commission asked Maine State Library staff to turn that agreement into a draft rule.
The Maine Campus spoke with Old Town Public Library Director Cassandra Pool, who said her library is already meeting the standards outlined in the draft rule and does not expect major changes if it is adopted. She said the library has been in compliance for “several years now.”
Pool said state‑funded services are central to how Old Town operates. Van delivery, shared systems and other statewide support are “very important” given they process 8,000 to 10,000 items per year, and the library’s interlibrary loan numbers far exceed the proposed 100‑item threshold.
From Pool’s perspective, the push to ensure Maine libraries are meeting certain standards is mostly about fairness and stability. Being in compliance, she said, “helps us stay on the same level as other libraries” and “helps keep the playing field fair.”
The risks, she believes, fall more heavily on “small, tiny little libraries” that rely on volunteers and have limited budgets. Those one‑person or volunteer‑run libraries, she said, “are going to probably struggle with it” as they try to meet new expectations.
When asked to clarify why 100-items processed is the cap, Stockman said that number was influenced by early experience as state librarian, when she discovered that some small libraries were doing only a handful of loans while still receiving a subsidized day of van service.
“There were a number of libraries who were allowed onto the service who did seven interlibrary loans a year and that was it,” said Pool. For one of those libraries, the Maine State Library was paying “almost 2,000 dollars” a year for that van stop, which worked out to about 285 dollars per book moved. “That is not a good use of public money,” said Pool.
She explained that Maine’s Area Reference and Resource Centers, the Maine State Library, Bangor Public Library and Portland Public Library already provide interlibrary loans by mail for smaller or more remote libraries that are not on a van route, or choose not to use van delivery. For Stockman, that distinction is crucial.
“This is not about money. This is about quality library service, and they are already receiving that quality library service if they’re not on van delivery,” she said.
Stockman framed the rule as an effort to formalize expectations and protect the statewide system, not to shrink it. “We need to do this rule so that for the whole library ecosystem and the Maine Regional Library System, we are able to demonstrate transparency, effective use of public money and the ability to have continuous improvement among all libraries in Maine,” she said.
For students at UMaine, the key question is whether any of this will make it harder to get books and articles through Raymond H. Fogler Library and the statewide network it relies on. Stockman’s answer is no. She pointed out that the draft rule is written for public libraries, not for academic libraries like Fogler, which are part of the university system rather than municipal or nonprofit public systems.
