Washington County Cooperative Library Services

What is Washington County Cooperative Library Services (WCCLS)?

The libraries in Washington County work together in a spirit of cooperation that extends beyond local boundaries in order to provide excellent countywide library service to all residents. WCCLS is governed by the Board of County Commissioners and the majority of funding for local public library service comes from the County. WCCLS is a partnership of the County, 9 cities and 2 non-profit associations. Meeting the needs of all residents--from large and small cities and the unicorporated areas--requires a good deal of give and take on the part of all libraries and their governing bodies, and is accurately reflected in the name, Cooperative Library Services.

By sharing materials between libraries the size of the “collective” collection is about 1.3 million items. For comparison, the Beaverton City Library (the largest in the County) owns about 300,000 items, and the Banks Public Library owns about 25,000 items. So whether you live in Banks or Beaverton, you have access to a virtual collection much greater than what any one library can provide.

Read about the history of WCCLS.

What does WCCLS do?

WCCLS provides the primary funding source for public library service:

WCCLS provides support to member libraries in the following ways:

WCCLS also provides outreach services to special populations:

What do the libraries do?