I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899 – 1986)
Google ‘libraries in crisis,’ as I just did, and you’ll be hit with a massive amount of stories of libraries facing fiscal meltdowns all across the country. My own library, the Brooklyn Public Library, has been running a campaign to raise $500,000 because of budget woes.
A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.
Henry Ward Beecher (Liberal US Congregational minister, 1813-1887)
This is just terrible. (And I have a mug from the Brewster Ladies Library, in Massachusetts, with that Beecher quote on it. I got it from my dad, who volunteered there, and at all of the other Cape Cod libraries he could get to).
It’s been shown that during financial crises, people utilize the libraries more than ever, for the free computers, internet and job assistance as well as borrowing books, DVDs and CDs so their leisure time is more enjoyable.
And yet during such crises public offerings such as the library are some of the first to get their budgets slashed.
An AP story talks about how even schools are cutting library funding, with perhaps close to 20% of schools having fewer library personnel when school reopens in the fall.
Really? We want our kids NOT TO HAVE BOOKS?!?
Okay, so I know we’re all in agreement about how awful this is. What are we going to do?
Earlier this year, I gave $50 to the Brooklyn Public Library (I also owe $5 in fines, but that’s something else). If you are able to, how about finding a library in your area and donating something–money or books–and then posting back here about what you did? We will all applaud your efforts, and likely as not your library will make good use of your donation and the crisis will be that much less.
And thank you!
(Janet will return tomorrow in my place; she had some pesky work tasks pop up, so asked me to fill in).
I volunteer with the Hickam Library. Hickam Air Force Base recently combined with Pearl Harbor Naval Base to create the Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam – with the Navy as the lead agent.
We joke in the Air Force that our service takes care of its people, while other services take care of their equipment (ships are expensive). But it is my impression that the Navy believes in libraries as part of morale and welfare of the military families in Hawaii – so our library programs are growing instead of shrinking.
I don’t know the state of the public libraries off base, but the Aloha Chapter frequently uses a newer library in Kapolei – a modern building overlooking the blue sea.
I am visiting my parents in the Clearwater area – the libraries in Pinellas County continue to offer great services, including internet services for me!
Thanks, Kim! That is awesome. Volunteering is such a commitment.
I just ran into a friend who is a librarian in one of the Northern Virginia libraries. Northern Virginia certainly hasn’t been spared the problems of the recession, but I would guess we are not is the dire staits as some places. There’s lots of money here still, so it really burns me up to hear from my friend that their staffs have been cut and the library use has gone up. There was even talk of closing the libraries one more day a week.
If anyone has tried to look for jobs in this day and age, you can’t do it without computer access and for some people their only access is a library. Not everyone can afford a computer and computer access!!!
I get a tingle of excitement just *driving by* my local libraries. They’re magical places and I’m not overblowing it when I say libraries are the cornerstone of a free and civilized society.
At my last library I mentioned how I was concerned that more $ would be spent on the building and less on books when our local library was rebuilt. (It’s gorgeous, but it does need more books.) And my manager’s response was, “Only poor people use libraries.”
This woman was a middle class manager. But then again she was also the same person who said to me, “My family have been Lutherans all the way back to Christ.” When I said, “Well perhaps at least to a certain paper being tacked upon a church door,” she just stared at me.
I think she could really use a good library. 🙂
Sheesh, I meant to say at my last “day job” not library!
I’ve been involved with the local library association (Friends of the Library style of group, not professional) for a number of years, and one of the things I’ve learned through at least one major threat of defunding from our state legislature is that library staff rely on such groups for getting the word out about funding issues.
Some of the major expenditures, like staffing hours, are prohibited by law from being funded outside of official sources, and other laws prohibit library staff from political advocacy, even when it means their own livelihood.
Donations from patrons can certainly help with materials to take out and such things as furniture or stipends for children’s program presenters (like a puppeteers). Our own group even helped raise and contribute funds for a building renovation, but when patrons are organized to pressure their state and local agencies which control that level of funding, that is a crucial kind of help, especially in this day of Facebook and Twitter. Masses of bodies on the statehouse steps and masses of phone calls, letters and emails to government representatives does still count.
More simply put, one of the things you can do is join together with others to form the biggest “squeaky wheel” you can.
Jane and Cyranetta (what a great name!) thanks for sharing!
Jane, it’s hard to believe people are so ignorant. Cyranetta, I am squeaking away, I hope!
Our local library has a great fundraiser each year – Murder on the Menu – which is a dinner featuring lots of mystery writers from all over the country. It has become quite popular on the mystery author circuit as our small town knows how to show an author a good time! Our local library support group F.O.W.L. (Friends of the Wetumpka Library) is really active and always looking for new ways to improve and enhance our library. They even invited me to speak at one of the meetings as an aspiring romance writer. I had a blast. And I have left my entire personal library to the Wetumpka Library in my will.
Donating books to our local Friends of the Library is simply a drop and go. So easy. Where all my don’t-want-to-keep-it go. 🙂
Brava, Megan, and thanks for blogging for me today. My local library system has been strapped for cash for years and it makes my blood boil.
I had the great pleasure of signing ARCs of Jane and the Damned at the ALA convention on Sunday and it was thrilling to meet such nice library people–a huge event, too, with 25k attendees.
Go libraries!
Thank you for posting this. I’ll be graduating next year as a digital librarian and I’m terrified about the job prospects.
One of the local stupid councilmen threatened to shut down all the public libraries, saying that it was the “schools’ job” of providing libraries. Uh…school libraries are for students. You wouldn’t want the public wandering into elementary, middle, and high schools. The schools also serve a completely different demographic and as you noted, schools are also having financial difficulties.
So, thank you again!
Thanks for this post, Megan! I’m a huge fan of libraries, and have been ever since I was a kid and my mom took me there every Saturday to stock up on the week’s reading. I’ve actually been thinking about that a lot lately, the great, lazy summers with time for nothing but reading…
Our library system here is actually funded in a different way than entities like schools and the police force, so while the school system is shamefully strapped the libraries are doing okay. This is great, because they’re massively busy all the time and one of the only places unemployed people with no access to a computer can go for help with applying for jobs and creating resumes, etc. Some of our local (word I can’t write here) politicians don’t understand this and stomp around proudly proclaiming they won’t vote for a budget like that for–horrors!–books. I see from your comments about people you’ve met, Amanda and Jane George, that ignorance is everywhere! 🙂
I volunteer almost every week at my local public library. Whatever else one may think of Washington and its high number of policy wonks and politicians, this neighborhood consists of voracious readers who happily donate books and then come to the little UBS within the library (stocked with their donations) to buy more. The Friends of the Library (FOLio) group decided to open the store every Saturday rather than having fewer but larger book sales, and I love working there.
Another local FOL group raised over $100,000 for its branch over the past 10 years or so from its big quarterly book sales. However, they’ve had to stop because their branch will no longer let them store the books there between sales because (now wait for it) . . . . the books were considered unsightly and a turn-off that kept people from visiting the library. Even overlooking the fact that the books were stored in bookcases on the second floor, not the main floor with the reading rooms, isn’t there something inherently wrong with librarians saying that books are unsightly?
Thanks for posting this! I’m a member of my local Friends of the Library (largely because then I get to go to the booksale’s sneak preview) but I gave an additional $25 last week because they are so desperate right now. Libraries are so important, I can’t believe what a low priority they seem to be for the gov’t.
I have always volunteered at my children’s school libraries and in our community libraries. For the last 8 years I was lucky enough to work at a county library. We were known throughout the region for doing much with very little money. My husband built 54 bookcases for the library and spent many other hours doing things for them. He wanted me to be happy and to help me do my job. We had a great team. We wanted to do as much as we could for our patrons. Unfortunately, HAD is the key word. When the Director retired, 2 board members who did not share the same view of what a library’s place is in a community proceeded to make changes,from hiring an unqualified replacement to canceling or cutting back most programing. Their feeling is the library is a place of business. They have sterilized the place. It is not a happy place anymore and hasn’t been since the old director left. It is a shame. I lost my job 2 weeks after addressing the full board about some patron’s and staff concerns. (Issues the new director asked me to address.)
The library is the heart of a community, not “a place of business.” Funding is hard enough to come by, it should be used the best way possible for all the community. The monetary value alone of the work volunteers do for libraries can make the difference in a budget. What my husband saved the library by making custom bookshelves for them, paid my salary for at least 2 years.
We need to remember the libraries are for everyone. We need to reach and serve the children. They are the future of the libraries as well as the country.
As the economy worsens, library usage goes up and the need is greater. Most libraries are underfunded, under staffed, and except in very wealthy areas, underpaid. Our per capita funding was about $3. That compares to an national average of over 10 times that much.
Give your time and your talents. Attend library board meetings to make sure things are being done properly. Many boards are appointed positions sought out to pad a resume. Board members are not really aware of what goes on or how things need to be run. Attend your county budget hearings and let them know how important the library is to the community. Make noise when books the community reads aren’t being put on the shelves. One of the above board members doesn’t like christian fiction or the teen paranormal books and wants fewer on the shelves. The fact that these books account for almost 1/3 of the library’s circulation doesn’t count.
As with everything else, be involved and let your voice be heard. I will be getting involved with the library in my community. I have already talked with them about volunteering. (I am still going back to the other county library, but as a patron. I also went back to show the new children’s librarian what materials were available.)
librarypat, your love for your library and your grief at its loss come through loud and clear. Such dedication ought to be rewarded, not sent away!
Thanks for all your efforts, everyone, and librarypat, for your fervent plea for libraries.
I went today–it was bustling, a refuge from the ghastly heat.