News
Troy MI Library In Deep…Mud
Nov 4th
The future of the Troy Public Library is “as clear as mud,” the city’s lawyer said Wednesday, after voters defeated four millage proposals designed to create and fund an independent library board.
And in Bloomfield Hills, voters sent a resounding “no” on Tuesday to a six-year, 0.617-mill library levy, with 61% of voters shooting down the measure, 1,342-842. Supporters sought to resume a lending contract with Bloomfield Township’s library or strike up a new deal with the library in Birmingham.
The Troy measure is likely to become a topic of Monday’s City Council meeting, where Mayor Louise Schilling is expected to bring up the possible censure of Councilman Martin Howrylak over his letter advocating the measures’ defeat.
Troy’s Proposal 1, the 10-year, 0.9885-millage, failed by 689 votes, 15,590-14,901, with 51% voting against it. The three other millage proposals failed by more than 80% of the vote each.
The library is scheduled to close July 1, after the City Council slashed funding and library hours this year and all funding by June 30.
Read more: Detroit Free Press.
Colorado Defeats Anti-Public Service Measures
Nov 3rd
Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101 went down last night. They would have laid waste to public service across Colorado, resulting in at least 70,000 lost jobs, plummeting property values and thoroughly-stifled local business. At my own library, we would have lost 58% of our revenue, and been forced to close half our branches and reduce hours at the remaining libraries. Of the 332 staff members, at least 172 of us would have lost our jobs. But that didn’t happen. The public voted for public service. And today we’re all breathing big gasping sighs of relief.
So what’s next?! Here’s my blog post over at Bad3Bad4Libraries, the blog we set up to help library lovers fight the three initiatives on their own time and dime.
The news is good in Colorado today, but libraries across the nation are in trouble and we’ve all got to work together to create a vibrant future for libraries. After all, can you picture a future without libraries? I don’t want to.
Please keep following SaveLibraries.org and check out LibraryRenewal.org while you’re it. If you feel the call in your heart, consider blogging here at SaveLibraries.org. We could use your help. Let us know; we look forward to talking with you.
Wood County Library Levy is Winner
Nov 3rd
A sense of validation was evident as it became obvious that the Wood County (OH) District Public Library’s five-year .8-mill levy would be a winner.
After 18 months of cuts in materials and staff and three furlough weeks, the library district serving roughly half of the county’s population, Tuesday received a big vote of confidence.
Unofficial results show the levy received 11,263 yes votes (58 percent) to 8,180 no votes (42 percent). The levy will generate an estimated $1 million a year. The money is intended to replace state support that has fallen 33 percent in the past two years and is expected to continue to decline in the future. The levy will cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 by the county auditor an estimated $25 a year.
“I’m ecstatic,” Library Director Elaine Paulette said. “We appreciate all of the support from our levy committee, led by Steve and Joan McEwen and Clif Boutelle, and the voters. Every single one of the levy committee members played a huge part in this effort.”
“Ecstatic is the best word to use,” echoed Library Trustee President Brian Paskvan. “We have a clear, definitive answer that people want services restored.”
Story from Sentinel-Tribune.
Troy Michigan Voters Will Decide
Nov 1st
Facing shrinking funding, library issues are on ballots across metro Detroit.
But none of the millage proposals are as convoluted as Troy’s, where an approximately 1-mill tax increase, supported by the Friends of the Troy Public Library, creates an independently funded and run library board.
Child with therapy dog @ the Troy Library
The city slashed library funding with 2010 budget cuts and the library is set to close June 30, 2011.
“There’s no big pile of money to fund the library,” said Mayor Louis Shilling. “We’d have to make cuts in health, safety and welfare services.”
But not every city official is in favor of the millage.
Shilling has called a special City Council meeting for 10 a.m. Monday to discuss censuring Councilman Martin Howrylak, who sent out a letter asking residents to vote against the measure on Tuesday.
The mayor said Howrylak’s letter was inaccurate and inappropriate for a sitting council member.
Howrylak said he supports a library, but not the proposal. What he opposes is the amount of money the millage proposals would raise — $4.6 million, as opposed to the $2.26 million the city budgeted for the library.
“At the very least, if you’re going to ask the folks here in Troy to pay more taxes, then simply make it the $2.26 million and that would be about a half a mill,” Howrylak said.
Read more: Troy Library’s future bound up with millage vote result | freep.com | Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/article/20101031/NEWS15/10310603/1001/News/Troy-Librarys-future-bound-up-with-millage-vote-result#ixzz142M3wc5G
New York City Librarians Plan Zombie Walk
Oct 23rd
Join us on October 30th for our Librarian Zombie Walk to City Hall!!!.
So it’s time for mid year budget adjustments. What’s that you say? I thought we were done until next year! Nope. The mid year budget adjustment will result in a further cut of 5.4%. These new cuts will result in even less service hours and more layoffs.
Our library budgets have already been cut to the bone, and these further reductions in funding will just degrade library service further. We’ve already lost Saturday Service in most of the city. It’s likely these cuts will be the end of what we have left. So those working parents taking their kids to the library on the weekend? Tough, not open. Can’t return your books during the week because you work 60 hours just to live? Tough, closed on the weekend.
Heroic Librarians
Oct 23rd
from i09, twenty supreme fictional librarians.
Now, if you were to add REAL librarians to the mix, that would rock…
“Cutting librarians cuts out the heart of communities”
Oct 20th
The Seattle Times editorial is here.
“Little Librarian Playset” discussion on boingboing
Oct 20th
Check it out
http://m.boingboing.net/2010/10/19/little-librarian-pla.html
California’s School Librarians
Oct 19th
From the OC Register: In California, as we plod through this not-so-great recession, there are two kinds of education-related cost cuts in play – the sexy kind and the not-so-sexy kind.
Any reduction in spending that might crank up the number of kids in a third-grade classroom, for example, is easy for parents and other tax payers to understand. Same for cuts that wipe out arts classes or PE or, the latest craze, several school days a year.
Teacher Librarian Marie Slim dresses the part of “rock star” during her “Read Like a Rock Star” 2009 book fair at Troy High School to raise funds for new books.
All those cuts, popular or not, attract attention and debate. In short, they’re sexy.
But farther down on the radar is another kind of cost cutting – the one that wipes out the often stereotyped resource known as the school librarian.
We all know the images of the school librarian. She shushes. She shelves. She sits, quietly, behind a desk. Dewey Decimal anyone?
Not sexy.
But head into Orange County’s school libraries and you’ll discover what [this OC Register reporter] found: passionate, dedicated, tech-savvy teacher librarians.
Des Plaines Library Could Close in December
Oct 15th
Facing a $600,000 shortfall, the Des Plaines Illinois library could close in early December if it doesn’t get the money needed to tide it over until the end of the year.
The library board has asked the city council for up to a $1.5 million loan, which has yet to be voted on. The library is waiting for nearly $3 million from Cook County tax receipts.
“They have to come in front of the city council and justify why they want this loan . . . [and] justify to the city council that they are making the necessary cuts so they won’t have to come to us for loans in the future,” Mayor Marty Moylan said.
He said the library needs to return to its core mission of making “basic reading material available.” Moylan said he has heard comments in the community that the library shouldn’t, for example, be in the business of loaning out CDs and movies for free.
Recent Comments