April 17th Readings

Indiana Tax Cuts Hurt PLs

This article, by Lynn Blumenstein, talks about tax cuts in Indiana and how it is going to affect libraries in 2008.

This article is just stating, what now is, a widely accepted fact though out the United States and that is public libraries are losing money and they are cutting back on what they are able to do. It also mentions that gray area about who is suppose to funding the library, the local or state government. In class we talked about the Circuit Breaker law, which was introduced in the 2010 taxes, which seems to be the what they are talking about in the article, about capping the property tax revenue once it gets to a certain point and I remember Krista saying that one of her revenues go to that point this year. I understand why the government put a cap on property taxes but it is still hard on the libraries when they depend on the money that comes in from those taxes.

The Case for Consolidation

This article, by Saul Amdursky, talks about public libraries consolidation and becoming less dependent on the government for money and using their own tax.

I think that it would be prudent for libraries to look other sources of income to fund the library because of the reduction in money they are able to acquire from the government. It would make sense to consolidate the resources that libraries have into one so that every library benefit but isn’t that also what a consortium does? It does seem practical a new source of income so that they may be able to increase the they receive so that they can institute the programs and resources they were not able to have before and stop trying to keep the library running on a diminishing budget.

The Economic Impact of Libraries in Indiana

This report, done by the Indiana Business Research Center, talks about the survey and finding that they found out about Indiana Public Libraries.

After reading the report, it made sense and I can see how library are not quite up-to-date with helping out businesses. To continue to be a force in the community and be relevant to all, libraries need to figure out a way to include business in their patron list whether it being acquiring new resources or planning programs. Businesses are an important part of the community and could help bring revenue to the library. The library needs to continue to reach out to different parts of the community. Libraries also have an economic benefit to the community. I would be afraid to think what would happen to the community if libraries were not around anymore. The economic benefit would not be there anymore. Also patrons who are economically challenged would not have a free place to go to get on the internet. All the benefit the library gives would be gone and there would not be very much to fill the hole that the library made.