Fairfax County supervisors are being asked to provide additional funding for library materials, with some advocates stressing the value of increasing print holdings.
“Libraries are in fact in desperate need,” Langley High School junior Mia Nash told the Board of Supervisors at an April 15 public hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget.
She said students and others were being shortchanged in the process, citing “a serious shortage” of nonfiction and reference materials. As a result, “our libraries cannot provide an adequate space for quality research,” Nash said.
In the county’s fiscal year 2026, which spans July 2025 through June 2026, Fairfax County Public Library was allocated about $4.15 million for materials acquisition, Fairfax County Public Library marketing and communications director Sara Prohaska told FFXnow.
Funding was relatively evenly split between physical and e-book/e-audio materials, she said.
Under the current initial budget, FCPL saw that figure rise to just under $4.6 million, with part of the growth attributed to the upgrade of the Kingstowne library to a regional facility. That status change brought nearly 19,000 new books to its collections.
County Executive Bryan Hill’s advertised FY 2027 budget, released in February, includes $4.02 million for materials, Prohaska told FFXnow.
One county elected official is also pressing his colleagues to provide more.
Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity is seeking an additional $1 million in materials acquisition as part of supervisors’ add-on package that will be discussed at a budget markup session next Tuesday (April 28).
In data submitted to fellow supervisors for review, Herrity said the county government’s annual budget for library acquisitions works out to about $2.55 per capita.
That compares to $5.57 in Loudoun County and $6.78 in Montgomery County, Maryland, he said.
“Fairfax County has fallen woefully behind neighboring jurisdictions in providing an updated public library collection, which increases workforce education and economic growth, leads to higher social mobility, increases literacy rates and increases overall quality of life within a community,” Herrity said.
Heading into the April 28 meeting, supervisors have approximately $23 million in unallocated funds that could be put to projects like library materials. A final vote on the fiscal 2027 budget will be taken on May 5.
Community support for libraries was confirmed earlier this month, when 3,000 residents turned out April 11 for the opening of the new Franconia Governmental Center. The new Kingstowne Regional Library occupies the second level of that structure.
The county library system is Virginia’s largest, consisting of eight regional branches, 14 community branches and one specialized branch. Hill’s FY 2027 budget proposes $37.48 million in total funding for the library system — up from the initial FY 2026 budget allocation of $36.54 million.
The initial FY 2026 funding was later augmented by additional funding, bringing the library budget for the year to $37.96 million.
As part of his FY 2027 budget plan, Hill proposed a spending cut of $516,519 that would include an elimination of eight vacant positions not needed during planned library renovations.
With all agencies directed to cuts equivalent to 5% of their existing budget FCPL Director Eric Carzon had suggested the reduction to avoid considering more permanent cuts, but noted that the positions will eventually need to be restored once all branches are open.
FCPL is also reducing its use of temporary pages who help shelve books and other materials.
Overall, library officials are anticipating 3.2 million in-person visits systemwide in the coming fiscal year, with web-based resources being accessed 27 million times.
FCPL has approximately 610,000 registered cardholders. According to the library’s budget data, its total operations cost in FY 2027 is expected to work out to $27.95 per county resident and $57.83 per cardholder. The cost-per-visit is estimated at $10.81.
But dollar figures don’t tell the whole story, Nash told supervisors.
“Library resources are trustworthy and accessible, but only if we continue to fund them,” she said.
Investing in more physical library materials also would support “bringing young people back into reading and out of our phones,” Nash said.
