Alright, enough trash-talking...onto more serious subjects...like library abuse. Our library has been abused a lot lately. First there was the vandalism. We had two windows broken in our building. One in Pat's office and the other in the community room. To me the most frustrating thing about that whole situation was that it was a library. It's not like we're a large corporation that's putting people out of jobs and ruining lives. It's not like somebody would need seek revenge by "sticking it to the man". We are a library. We live and thrive on serving our communities. We accept and welcome all ideas and all walks of life. For someone to vandalize our building is not only disgraceful, it is simply disgusting. What did we ever do to deserve such an act against us?
Another act of library abuse that has recently hit our library is the theft of four Harry Potter books-on-cd. The interesting thing about this theft is that whoever happens to be doing it is only stealing the discs and then leaving the case stuffed in the easy reader's in the children's section. As I discussed in an earlier blog, we have had a lot of problems with stealing as of recently. It is difficult not to take it personally when we have items stolen from our collection. For one, the replacement cost can be pretty substantial (especially with books-on-CD). For another, it is free to check the stuff out!! Where else in this world can you check out stuff for free?!?! *sigh*
Finally, in another act of library abuse, the govenor is proposing an 18% reduction in state library funding for his fiscal 2009 budget. Per an e-mail from Barbara Peterson, President of the Iowa Library Association...I am passing this information on to you all in hopes that you will come out and support your local libraries. We need to make not only our city governments aware of what budget cuts do to our libraries, but our state representatives must be made aware as well. Here is what we received in our e-mail:
"As you probably know by now, the governor's FY 2009 budget proposal cuts state library funding by 18%! That is $1,119,442! This would cut the following: State Library $135,000; Library Service Areas $259,442; and Enrich Iowa $725,000. The $725,000 cut to Enrich Iowa came from the infrastructure fund known as RIIF. The governor's proposal removes $1,000,000 from RIIF. $50,000 of that had gone to the LSAs, and the remainder ($950,000) to Enrich Iowa. Then, only $225,000 is put back in the general fund as a replacement for the $950,000 in RIIF funding that had been going to Enrich Iowa. This results in the $725,000 net loss to Enrich Iowa.
As you can see this will affect libraries in a big way. The overall budget has a 6% increase in spending and libraries are suffering an 18% cut.
The end result would be that services to all of Iowa's library users would be
devastating. The only way that you as an Iowa Librarian or Library Advocate can
make a difference is to first contact the Governor at
http://www.governor.iowa.gov/administration/contact/ or chet.culver@iowa.gov,
letting him know you are opposed to this and what the consequences would be for your
library. It is my understanding that if you use the Governor's website to contact
him, you will eventually get an answer.
Second, email or talk with your local legislators. Again, you can find that information at http://www.legis.state.ia.us/findleg/. The more contacts the governor and the legislators receive, the more attention this issue will get. We want them to know that the governor's budget cuts for libraries needs to be changed.
As Mike stated in his alert, we need to be adamant, yet polite. Thanking the
governor and the legislators for past support is always important. Also, please
have your Trustees, Friends, and other library supporters contact the governor and
local legislators. Mike's Alert Part II stated, "In the last year, 64% of your
representatives' constituents held library cards and, collectively, made some 16
million visits to public libraries. This is a fact that needs to be heard by both
the governor and local legislators."
So please, do your part to help us out!
No comments:
Post a Comment