Our library has hosted 3 – 4 different sleepovers in recent memory. Library personnel needs to be present when the building is in use, and each time one of our staff has donated their time to make the sleepover possible. I’m hard pressed to think of another municipal or retail entity where the space would be as fun and the employee commitment and generosity so strong.

Enduring value … at my library.

Best wishes for the new year, Jean

Each week they field my phone calls and emails asking about library policies and practices. They share important perspectives about municipal governance and challenge my thinking on various subjects, which is so vital. And of course they acquire lots of materials for me from academic libraries and databases I never knew existed.

So, in case I haven’t said it often enough — THANK YOU to Louise, Sue G, Sue S, Steve, Ginny, Lauren, Cecile, Jackie, and Denise! I truly appreciate what you do.

As I checked out a few books at the front desk, the staff person was distracted by the phone ringing, presumably because there was no longer a colleague alongside to answer it.  Another distraction occurred as a patron walked in and hastily asked (of no one in particular) where a meeting was being held.  Here again, with a colleague close by the attention of the person helping me might not have been diverted by this inquiry.  But this time it was.

These disturbances, though minor, displaced the subtle acknowledgement I treasure with every library visit — the split-second pause and glint in the staff member’s eye that conveys I’ve been seen and valued as an individual.

The Beaman Memorial Library is small and has “run lean” for years, so I’m sure the loss of the Assistant Director position, let alone the person who held it, has been very difficult for the remaining staff.  I know they’ll adjust and continue to do an outstanding job delivering material services.  My grave concern is that our local funding crisis has compromised their ability to do what distinguishes our library from big-box bookstores or supermarkets.  To keep our library open, we’ve had to eliminate the staff’s time (and psychic space) to:

• pause and listen to patrons, and discern the real question when we cannot effectively articulate it;
• register which individual they’re assisting and point out a new acquisition or program of interest, or ask about a relative or neighbor;
• have “learning moments” to help them grow and feel good about their jobs, like working alongside a patron to explore a database, or talking about a reference question afterwards with a colleague.

These are the subtle qualities that have made our library wonderfully unique and transcendent.  In the sixteen years I’ve lived in West Boylston, our library has never been rich — but it has also never seemed poor.  I’m concerned that this year we’ve dipped below the poverty line, which is a tragic way to live for very long.

National coverage is a welcome development.  It’s time to help the mainstream media realize there’s a compelling story here—and to help tell it.

We need to convey that the funding crisis preceded the recession and will likely outlast it. Coverage needs to expand beyond the use of libraries as job search centers and publicize the rich community, educational and cultural activities that also take place there.

Centrally located, concise supporting materials to help citizens, journalists and policymakers engage in a deeper conversation about public libraries would be invaluable.¹

I’m also thinking a prominent advocate or national campaign is vital to sustaining interest in public libraries. President Jimmy Carter’s support for Habitat for Humanity or the Got Milk? campaign come to mind.

The mainstream media is paying attention, so let’s tell ‘em our story.

¹This Friday’s post will offer examples of supporting materials.

“Libraries will get you through times of no money better
than money will get you through times with no libraries”
Natalie Design
ALA, 1991

These are strange times for library supporters and officials. Individuals, businesses, and community groups continue to strongly support the library with donations and with their time; yet, at the same time, town officials struggle valiantly to fund the community’s library. Library use is up while the library budget is reduced. There is a constant battle waged against the reality of local library services and the notion that libraries are somehow obsolete or non-essential.

For the majority of people in West Boylston, the Library shares the essential nature of other municipal and community organizations. Communities that are thriving, even just surviving within today’s economic challenges, are made up of many such successful groups, a single fabric from many threads.

In 1912 this community received a gift of inestimable value from a humble, yet successful farmer George Calvin Rice. On September 6, 1912 the dedication of the Beaman Memorial Public Library took place. At that time the library was open to the public for 22 hours each week and by 1929, with the Great Depression looming, the library was open for 26 hours per week.

While times have changed and libraries are very different places in 2009 than they were in 1929, the economic challenge facing West Boylston and its citizens at this time is equally great. The Trustees and staff will have to struggle to maintain the current level of services and hours within the reduced budget for FY2010, but we know we are all in this together and we will rise to the challenge.

A strong and vibrant library is necessary for continued community sustainability as an educational institution for all citizens and as a worthy partner for other public and private entities such as: schools, businesses, and organizations. Our supporters recognize that we each need to cherish and promote all our public places, public services, and public professionals. We all need to remain strong in order for West Boylston to continue to be perceived as a great place to live and raise our families and as a wonderful place to retire. With your continued support, we will be here to help make that happen.

Following years of level-funding or budget reductions, saving money for public libraries means cutting collections, deferring building maintenance or reducing staff. In West Boylston, we’ve done all three for the past few years and I’m wondering how long it will take for the water to run out of our leaky bucket.

If my town is representative of middle or lower-middle class communities, local funding is tapped out. At the federal level, nearly $800 billion is being pushed to states, perhaps with more speed than consideration. USA Today reports states with the highest unemployment rates have received comparatively few of the stimulus contracts. The New York Times reports formulas for distributing education funds seem to take little account of who needs the money most. In fact, its coverage quotes the school superintendent of a wealthy district who describes the money that has “dropped in” as a “distraction”.

It would be good to have strong library advocates to help sort these issues out. I’ve been watching for signs of life from leading library associations and was encouraged by the ALA’s observation this month that the funding crisis is newsworthy.  With some luck, their Office for Library Advocacy or Office for Government Relations might eventually take up the matter.

In the meantime, with public library directors across the nation absorbed by “hunkering down”, we need people who can look up and out. If ossified library associations can’t do it, who can?

Given the magnitude of the library funding crisis, I’d urge state and national library associations to do the same.  They might, for example, coordinate their efforts and form coalitions with other groups to lobby for big money issues like single-payer healthcare.

There are a number of reasons to support single-payer healthcare.  One is that municipal funds currently spent on health insurance could be reallocated to public libraries and a range of other vital services. In West Boylston, 16% of our FY2010 budget will be used to purchase group healthcare insurance for town employees.  This single line item is equivalent to the FY2010 appropriations for these town departments:

• Police
• Fire
• Public Safety
• DPW
• Library
• Treasurer/Collector
• Building Inspector
• Town Counsel
• Cemetery

Incredible, isn’t it?  You know, each of these departments took budget cuts in FY2010.  They might also want to ban together with library associations to call for more responsible national leadership on healthcare and financial issues.

* Original graphic by Quest Medical Claims.

Calls and letters from library supporters were instrumental in reinforcing the value of the Beaman Library to our town officials. Resident and out-of-town patron support as well as the efforts of the Select Board, our Town Administrator and other town department heads working together all accrued to a FY2010 budget that is more equitable for all departments.

Let’s nurture this focus on value and cooperation.
Let’s nurture this focus on value and cooperation.
Let’s nurture this focus on value and cooperation.

The past few months have been so difficult! Through it all, our Library Director has shown outstanding leadership, strength and grace to the countless patrons who have contacted her, to the press, to the Trustees and Friends Boards, to our town officials and to her staff. The staff has also been amazing through this crisis. Despite the stress of answering questions about the library’s fate from concerned patrons throughout each day and pondering their own livelihoods, the staff continued to make the Beaman Library so much more than its building and books.

Our Town Administrator has publicly stated that “In my career in West Boylston, I have never had an issue that generated more correspondence to me or the Board of Selectmen than the lack of funding for the library“.¹ It’s significant that it is our public library that has galvanized the community and motivated our town leaders to step up to our challenges.  I believe there is a continued role for Beaman Library as a community beacon and I plan to keep advocating for it.

¹Worcester Telegram & Gazette/Banner, 4/30/2009