January 31st Readings

“Bottoming Out?”-Michael Kelley

The author takes a look at the results from a survey concerned with public library budgets and funding.

While written with a generally positive outlook for the future, this article is depressing. I also wonder how accurate its predictions were. I remember hearing similar things last year at the public library I was working at. However, rumors of colossal budget cuts started circulating around early summertime and by the time I left to start grad school in August $40,000 had to be cut immediately from the current year’s budget, with another $30,000 and $20,000 from the next two years’.  Granted that is just one small library’s experience, but were things actually different for other libraries around the country? Or was there a sense of false optimism at the start of last year?

“Performing Triage on Budgets in the R*E*D”-Thomas Hennen Jr.

The author discusses options library should look at when figuring out how to mend their budgets.

I’m not sure about this article. Given it was written in 2003 I would like to see a follow up article from the author, or those that used his strategies, and see if what he suggested actually worked. The way they are presented, they don’t seem doable. It’s like there are great examples given, but no direction. Perhaps though, that is the real problem. The last 5 years or so that I have been paying off and on attention to library matters has seen lots of suggestions on how to fix things and for some libraries, they even work! But perhaps the real problem is that libraries are lacking a direction, especially now in 2012. What really is the purpose of a library? As a class we tried to create a definition, but what is that definition really saying? Does it actually help us as librarians-in-training to plow the way for libraries in the future? Or does it just give us an all-encompassing answer to make sure we’ve covered our bases and not left anything out that might be important later on?

“Vote of Confidence”-Beth Dempsey

The author discussed the possibilities libraries can achieve when they are politically active in their own future.

 This is the type of knowledge I believe that every library and information science student needs to graduate knowing. Advocacy is one of the best tools a library can use to increase its presence in its community and in order to have great advocators, all librarians, not just directors, need to be able to discuss their libraries in terms their patrons are going to identify with. This article reminded me of another article that I feel should go hand in hand with this one. It is written by Kathleen Imhoff and is titled “Creating Advocates for Public Libraries.” These two articles are similar in their use of strong examples of what happens when libraries succeed in connecting with their public and making them aware of current issues that their libraries are facing. According to one of our slides from class last week, even those that don’t use libraries feel that they are still vital to their communities. Making sure we graduate future librarians with this knowledge is not only helping them formulate ways to increase the library’s importance within their community but it is giving them a leg up when it comes time to ask for the community’s support.