Local libraries' budgetary issues — and solutions

April 29, 2010 1:35 PM by Ken Gagne
Filed under Potpourri; 1 comment.

A few months ago, I was driving through Bolton and stopped to check out their expansion to the public library. It's a beautiful and natural extension of their existing building that is proportionate to the community's needs.


The visit had me wondering how it is that the Bolton, Leominster, and Worcester libraries have all afforded to expand in a decade when library budgets are being slashed by dangerous amounts. The answer was obvious — such expansions were planned well before the current economic crisis — but this question led to others about the budgetary issues being faced by local libraries and how they're coping. I decided it was an issue that warranted further investigation.

Fortunately, my social circle includes many librarian and literary people who were willing to engage me on this topic. I spoke with both CMRLS librarian Carolyn Noah and New York Times best-selling author R. A. Salvatore, two people who had previously spoken to each other on the topic of library funding (see time index 2:54 – 3:52 especially). I was also fortunate to speak with Christine Drew for her perspective as an academic librarian at WPI.

The result is "Bad economy checks us out of libraries", an editorial that ran in Worcester Magazine on Apr 22, 2010. It appears almost entirely intact, except for this sentence in Mr. Salvatore's interview: "Would there be some equitable way to consolidate town libraries into regional ones?" Of the entire piece, this is the most provocative proposal and the one with the greatest potential to cure what ails local libraries. As one concerned citizen recently told me, "It isn't good stewardship to duplicate services in towns [so] close … even in a good economy."

Independently, PCWorld.com recently suggested that libraries should take this opportunity to reinvent themselves as not just archivists, but studios and producers of original content by local artists. This approach similarly requires a community-oriented mindset in which content creators collaborate, not compete, with their neighbors. Is it possible?

Whatever fate befalls libraries, we cannot allow such a valuable institution to disappear. From a purely financial perspective, libraries offer an unparalleled return on investment. Cutting their funding to save the economy would be "like cutting West Point from the military pipeline to reduce the defense budget" — it's incredibly short-sighted. These are not easy times to live in, which means making hard decisions. Let's make sure they're the right ones.

spacer spacer spacer spacer
Tags: American Library Association, Bolton, budgets, Carolyn Noah, Christine Drew, CMRLS, communities, economy, Fitchburg, Leominster, libraries, library, RA Salvatore, Worcester, WPI

  1. #1 Alison on May 3, 2010 at 12:56 pm spacer

    One issue with regionalizing libraries is that town libraries can serve as a community hub in these days when small towns often have no other. Our library (Boylston) has tried repeatedly to expand or to build a new building, and has not succeeded. It's true that many of the towns around have succeeded where Boylston has failed, but I'd rather have our small local library and interlibrary loan than be forced to go to other towns' libraries (although I do often choose to do just that). And the MBLC forces towns to "own" a library of some kind if the citizens of that town want to use the regional library system.

    Schools are funded by the towns but provide services to only a small proportion of the population, while libraries are for everyone, and provide a place where anyone who is motivated can learn about nearly whatever they wish. I hope not to ever see an end to libraries!

    [reply]

Leave a Reply

spacer
Related searches:
library virtual online bookshelf economy
gipoco.com is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.