Your working group, established during the Assessment Phase of the districting process, has now determined that creating a library district would be a good way to provide public library services and that there is sufficient public interest to create such a district. You will now need to move into a more formal Planning Phase for the district. The depth of planning required during this phase will depend to a large degree on the changes that you expect the district to create in services and structure.
For example, in 1993 the Moscow City Library and the Latah County Library District combined. These libraries had already been operating for several years as the Moscow-Latah County Library. Employees were already working under the same personnel policies and procedures. It was not anticipated that the services of the library would change dramatically. The change was made primarily to simplify the governance of the library, which had been operating under two separate boards. This kind of districting
project requires relatively little planning.
On the other hand, during the same time, a library district was proposed in Shoshone County. The proposed district took in the unserved part of the county, along with the cities of Mullan, Osburn, and Wallace, all of which had city libraries. The work was done in conjunction with the Pinehurst-Kingston Library District, which anticipated consolidating with the new district at a later date. The Kellogg Public Library and the Clarkia District Library did not wish to join the proposed district but were willing to
contract with it for services. Employees of the city libraries and district library that were to combine into the new district all worked under different personnel policies; they all provided different kinds of services. This districting project required a much greater degree of planning.
You will need to determine for yourselves how much planning is necessary for your proposed project. If you are to err, however, you should do so in the direction of more planning. The fewer surprises you experience in the districting project, the more likely its success. Planning helps avert surprises.