Week 4 Readings Reactions

Michael Kelley

Bottoming Out

Using poll data, Kelley shows that even as state legislatures cut library funding, local communities are still supportive of their libraries. With the specter of more budget cuts looming, libraries are trying to stay relevant while using fundraising and staff reduction to deal with the current losses.

The point about relevancy in this age of quickly evolving technology is something I have been hearing about a lot. My home library just introduced Blu-rays as a new format to borrow, and my Collection Development class discussed the different licensing issues that e-books create.

As an incoming new librarian, it is the staff reductions that concern me the most though. On one hand I see staff reductions as less jobs available for me to fill. However, it may be that libraries are going to have to move towards a business model that asks employees to combine duties, for example a children’s librarian may also have the duty of administering the library’s website for summer reading. In this case, my generation of librarians will be better equipped to take on such varied duties than librarians who were not trained to use technology tools.

Beth Dempsey

Vote of Confidence

Dempsey paints a much bright picture of libraries’ financial situations, using referenda pass/fail percentages to show that libraries are still highly valued by their local communities.

 While the overall point of this article was that libraries were still supported by their communities, I found Dempsey’s exploration of the differences between the passing and failing campaigns very interesting. Campaigning well was associated with polling the community before putting measures on the ballot and creating a strong impact message. Libraries are learning that PR is just as necessary for them as commercial businesses. It is not enough for libraries to have an 85% satisfaction rating from users, the community needs to know about that statistic.

Thomas J. Hennen Jr.

Performing Triage on Budgets in the Red

Hennen points out that libraries are still around, even if they are having some financial troubles. He then presents tools for libraries to adapt to the current financial and technological landscape.

The five tools he lays out are all interesting ideas, but some are better than others in my opinion.

-Combining service areas to avoid “overhead and duplication” sounds like a reasonable idea, but putting it in practice sounds like it would mean a reduction of library jobs.

-Having a better system to deal with gifts is a great idea. I had no idea that gifts could be substituted for taxes that already exist. That seems ridiculous to me. A gift should be in addition to the library’s current funding, not used to replace a tax, as if that tax was a loan to be repaid.

-I love the idea of having an e-donation option on library websites. This would be a great way to make donations a more visible option to the average user. I do think it would have to be presented carefully to avoid any negative attention implying that the library is asking for more money on top of the tax money they already receive.

-I had never heard of impact fees before reading this article, but they sound like a great way to keep funding responsibility more fairly distributed.

-The call for political engagement is fair, in that having vocal community support is essential in gaining political support. I think caution should be used in involving politics with libraries, as our neutrality and objectivity could be compromised.