First, some background. I’m a librarian’s son. In fact, my mother
was my high school’s librarian for many years. Our family also spent
lots of time at libraries. In fact, my father, who is well into his
80’s, is so addicted to going to the Cedar Rapids library that he will
venture out in all kinds of weather, walk to the bus stop, and board the
city bus to make the trip across town to the library.
Personally, I’m a heavy user of our small local library. It’s
unusual for me not to have a book or two checked out. While my father
loves to buy and own books, I don’t have much use for books that I’ve
already read. I see no reason to buy a book when my tax dollars already
support a library where I can borrow it for free. If I really want to
read it again, I’ll just borrow it again.
So when I heard that our local library was in financial trouble and
was holding a community forum to discuss its future, I was immediately
interested A well-educated public is the key to a well-functioning
democracy. The idea that our local library was broke and may need to
cut services got my attention. In the back of my mind, warning lights
and sirens were going off: “It’s a meeting. You don’t like meetings
You don’t do well at meetings.”
At different times of my life, people have approached me to be part
of public boards or church committees, For several years, I was the
education reporter for the local newspaper and covered the local school
board meetings. I have a fair amount of experience in attending
meetings. I suffered through church deacon meetings for a couple of
years before crying uncle.
While I had high hopes for last night’s library meeting, I was ready
to raise a white flag about half-way through. There were a couple of
real issues. The library board got itself into trouble by supporting
and promoting the idea that having two full-time co-directors with
benefits was sustainable. It was easy to overlook the growing budget
deficits because both directors were really nice people who were great
at their jobs. I know them both, and it’s true. After burning through
most of the library’s reserves, the board decided to end the co-director
positions and post a single job opening for director. Both great
people aren’t there anymore, and a new director has been hired. That
change will theoretically put the library on sounder financial ground.
But that issue wasn’t up for debate; an informational statement was
made.
The second big issue, and the real elephant in the room, is how the
library’s revenue is obtained. Over 200k is provided through county and
municipal tax dollars. The local township has contributed a flat 6k for
a number of years. The county (outside the township) and the city
account for almost 30k in circulation items. The township accounts for
21k in circulation items. You don’t have to be a math wizard to
determine that these numbers aren’t fair. As a town resident, I want
my township to do a better job supporting the library. But that issue
wasn’t up for debate; an informational statement was made, and we were
advised that very smart people were working on the library board to
address that issue. In fact, quite a few people at the forum wanted to
talk about that issue, but discussion was abruptly cut off.
The remaining 60 minutes of the 90 minute forum was spent in small
groups where we were asked what we liked about the library and what we
would like the library to improve upon. This is where I was reminded
that we live in a very divided nation. There were about as many visions
for the library as there were people in the room. Lots of people
wanted to make sure that the library fit their ideas (serve kids, teens,
parents, seniors, etc). Paraphrasing, some of the conversations went
like this:
Patron 1: We need to make the library more attractive to teens.
Patron 2: I don’t care about your teens. I don’t have any children. I want more programs for seniors.
Patron 3: We need to make the library more open, more reliant upon technology, less money spent on books.
Patron 4. We need more books. I like the feel of a book. I don’t own a Kindle. Don’t take away any books.
It went on and on like this. The people speaking up wanted to be
heard, but no one wanted to listen to opposing viewpoints. No one
wanted to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. The moderator stated
that the purpose of the meeting was to gather opinions, and that
everyone’s perspective was valuable. Maybe, but to me it was like
herding cats. Once it became clear to me that the survival of the
library was not at stake, I was ready to go. I’m still willing to pay
higher taxes to support the library, but I don’t want to see the sausage
being made.
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