April 17th Readings

The Case for Consolidation

This article advances the notion that libraries need to consolidate in order to increase their efficiency, independence and ultimately serve patrons better. I really appreciated that the author pulls no punches about what he sees wrong with the current library funding set-up. He notes in passing that the idea of local government, though it may sound great, is instead a way to enforce many societal ills such as racism and poverty. This poor and inefficient performance on the part of local governance is why Amdursky advocates for the reforms that he has written about. One aspect I found interesting about this article was that it was written in 2004, well before the current economic crisis. It just shows that the slashing of budgets in the public sector has been a long term project of saving money. This trend also highlights the necessity of switching over to new sources of income. As the articles last week showed, some money (but certainly not all) can come from fundraising activities such as grants and sales. New tax policies must be engendered if libraries are to provide quality services for their patrons. I did not understand quite how Amdursky proposed to go about raising revenue for libraries. Would the libraries themselves become the agents of taxation? If so, how? If not, how again? Additionally, the “one size fits all” approach here may not be able to help in other communities.

Indiana Tax Cuts Hurt PL

This article discusses the impact of decreased property taxes on Indiana libraries. I find it pretty amazing that property taxes (at least of this writing) make up 80% of the revenue for public libraries in Indianapolis. This sounds like a problem to be addressed in and of itself. Like Amdursky writes about, if an area is poor and marginalized, so too will its library services be. Much of this article (surprise!) spoke to issues that we have already discussed in class and worked on for assignments. These cuts look quite serious and they are affecting the services that librarians are able to provide. At least the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library was able to sell off their big book-mobiles and purchase smaller vans. This measure probably does not compare with the former services, however. Furthermore, the cuts do not seem to have been offset greatly by the raising of the state sales tax. All issues, unfortunately that we as public librarians will be forced to grapple with in the future.

The Economic Impact of Libraries in Indiana

This study by the IU School of Business concluded that libraries provided an overall good economic impact upon the state of Indiana. Do politicians look at these documents? I doubt it… This document clearly shows that libraries in Indiana provide so much good for the people of this state, yet they are continually being asked to shoulder more and more services in an effort to offset the costs of other agencies. Perhaps it is time that we librarians demand (because of our great record shown here) more funding in order to help our patrons meet their needs.