Why Should Delaware Care?
As both a place to check out books and a community gathering space, local libraries are integral resources to small towns in Delaware. Independent libraries in Sussex County are struggling to stay afloat financially though, putting the important community resources they provide at risk of disappearing.
Community-Powered Journalism
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For independent libraries in Sussex County, unlike their county-run counterparts, funding is a never-ending struggle that threatens their ability to stay open.
In 2024, the Selbyville Public Library had to come up with $87,000 just to break even on its operating costs. That same year, the Georgetown Public Library had to fundraise roughly 32% of its budget.
As county and state funding falls short, independent libraries across Sussex County struggle to fill in a third or more of their budgets each year.
Some libraries are not able to close this gap, either dipping into their savings or running a deficit to make ends meet. Others are narrowly able to break even, thanks to periodic fundraisers and contributions from community members.
“What we get from the county roughly covers payroll,” Georgetown Library Director Rachel Culver said. “And then what we get from the state roughly covers building expenses. Any of the actual library work that we’re doing is not funded by the county or the state.”
Most of Sussex County’s libraries – 11 of the 14 total – are independent. So they receive less government funding than libraries that are county-run in Kent and New Castle counties.
And western Sussex County in particular suffers from a lower average household income that saps the financial means to donate and help libraries close funding gaps – unlike their counterparts in Lewes and Rehoboth Beach, for example, according to multiple library directors.
Despite monetary challenges, employees at western Sussex libraries keep going, working overtime to secure grants while also serving as resource hubs within their small communities.
“My staff are really good at doing low-cost programs that have a big impact,” Laurel Public Library Director Gail Bruce said.
Sussex County funding structure
Sussex County has 14 libraries in total. Eleven of those are independent, while the other three are county-run.
That’s compared to New Castle County, which has 10 county libraries and just four independent libraries. Kent County has five libraries in total, which are a hodgepodge of county, school district and independently funded.
While Delaware’s county-run libraries are funded entirely by taxes collected at the county level, independent libraries are financed through a mix of county funding, state funding and the library’s own fundraising.
The goal is for roughly 15% of an independent library’s total budget to be covered by state funding and the rest by county funding, a representative from the Delaware Division of Libraries said.
While New Castle County has reached that funding goal, Sussex County only funds about 50% of its independent libraries’ budgets, the directors said, leaving the libraries to conjure up the additional 35% in funds.
New Castle County spent $19 million on libraries in 2024, compared to Sussex County’s $2.5 million, according to state Division of Libraries data.
Sussex County funding for independent libraries comes from a combination of a library tax on properties and a fee paid by mobile homeowners wishing to place their homes in the county, according to Sussex County Director of Libraries Rachel Lynch.
Once the money for independent libraries is collected in any given year, Sussex County library directors divide the funds among themselves, using a formula that considers program attendance, library visits and building square footage.
This system is challenging, Selbyville Public Library Director Kelly Kline said, because the libraries are always competing for the same pot of money.
“It’s a competitive formula, and anyone’s success is someone else’s subtraction,” she said.
Library directors said they often feel stress about the fluctuating county funds from year to year, fearing the resulting programming or staffing cuts they could be forced to make.
Frankford Library Director Bonnie Elliott said she was afraid that her library would have to close its doors after major funding decreases in 2023 and 2024, until the library bounced back with improved numbers in 2025.
Commitment to independence
While the three county-run libraries in Sussex County – Greenwood, Milton and South Coastal – have an easier time securing funding, many of the independent library directors said the flexibility and autonomy their independence provides is worth the financial struggle.
“We just have a lot more freedom as an independent to do what works for Laurel instead of what’s going to work for the whole county,” Bruce said.
A representative from the Delaware Division of Libraries said all Sussex County libraries were offered the option to become county-run facilities in the early 2000s, but only Greenwood, Milton and South Coastal accepted the offer. Now, it is unclear if Sussex officials would be willing to fund another county library.
While Kline, from Selbyville, agreed that it is worthwhile to have the independence to create programming for the community and have fewer county-level protocols to work with, it is a continued challenge for independent libraries to have to compete with each other for funding every year.
In hopes of creating a more equitable funding system, Kline secured a grant for a consultant to help the county’s independent libraries re-examine their current funding formula.
Though the consultant has yet to begin working, Kline said she is optimistic that it will provide some relief and bring new ideas to the county.
“We want someone with a fresh perspective to come in and make some recommendations to us,” she said. “We want something that’s a little more straightforward.”
Staffing and hours
With a lean and unpredictable amount of county money each year and a large number of dollars to make up, many independent library directors said they are doing all they can to not cut staff or library hours.
With three full-time employees and seven part-time staff members who work anywhere from six to 30 hours a week, Bridgeville Public Library Director Karen Johnson-Kemp described her library as “minimally staffed.”
Culver, the Georgetown director, said she would love to add hours for her staff, but she can’t imagine a world in which the library would be able to afford it.
To help fill budget gaps, library staff are picking up the extra work of writing grants and planning fundraisers.
In addition to her full-time job at the Bridgeville Library, Johnson-Kemp is the organizer of the town’s annual Apple-Scrapple festival, which serves as a major fundraiser for the library, along with other nonprofit organizations in the community, she said.
The Laurel Public Library has an annual block party aimed at raking in extra dollars, while Frankford is gearing up for a Halloween-themed trivia fundraiser in October.
Across the board, libraries were forced to shorten the hours and days they were open in the wake of the COVID pandemic. In western Sussex County, many libraries never extended their hours back.
The Seaford District Library, which has been without a director since April, is closed on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The Delmar Public Library is closed two days a week, and is only open for four hours another day.
While other Sussex libraries have moderately longer weekday hours, all of the county’s independent libraries except Millsboro are open for just four hours in total on the weekend.
“One of the things that is hard to do sometimes with staff is keep our morale up, when you have to cut hours, or look at the hard line,” Elliott, the Frankford director, said.
Not just a library
For many western Sussex County towns with populations of just a couple thousand, there are limited options for community gathering spaces and places for residents to turn to for social services. So, in spite of financial challenges, independent libraries have increasingly become community resource spaces for small towns.
“We are the community space, the community center, if you will,” said Culver, the Georgetown director. “The place that people can gather.”
In Laurel, a town with the highest poverty rate and one of the highest gun violence rates in the state, the library has become a particularly important place for residents to access resources.
The library partners with a number of downstate nonprofit organizations, including Lunch With a Purpose and the Harry K Foundation, to provide a food cart, coat drives, hygiene stations in the restrooms and free eye exams to library visitors, Bruce, Laurel’s director, said.
She added that the library began offering extra support services during the pandemic, and has continued expanding the scope of additional services as staff members have seen the need continue to grow in the community.
“It’s been exciting over the last years to see how we can have this space and use it as a library, but also to meet those other needs in town,” Bruce said.
Other western Sussex libraries have implemented programs geared toward specific needs within their communities.
The Bridgeville Library has a wellness program where patrons can check out an exercise bag and follow workout videos on the library’s YouTube channel because there is no gym in the town of Bridgeville.
The Georgetown Library holds job fairs and has a number of English as a second language (ESL) classes for the area’s large Spanish-speaking population, while the Frankford library makes its computers available to kids who need to do homework but do not have internet access at home.
Johnson-Kemp, from Bridgeville, said these additional programs are indicative of staff members’ dedication to their role in the community.
“When you reflect on what we’re able to provide, it is a reflection on the community and our staff, and it means that we love what we do,” she said.
Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.
