Carter County Rejects Library
Staff -- Library Journal, 1/15/2001
What can $.06 buy these days? In Carter County, KY, one of the nation's handful of areas without any library service, it could have funded the construction of a public library. County magistrates, however, unanimously rejected the proposal, asserting that there would be very little benefit for the 25,000 county residents, who already feel overtaxed. Construction of a library would have added $30 to their annual tax bill, a sum that those championing the proposal assert is less than what most pay for cigarettes or gasoline in a single week. Statistics show that roughly half the county residents are functionally illiterate, and Kentucky overall has a smaller number of high school graduates over the age of 25 than any state in the nation, with only 44 percent possessing literacy skills, according to a 1997 survey by the University of Kentucky. County Magistrate Carlos Wells, however, claims that 51 percent of Carter County residents completed high school. The county, which is dominated by farms, suffers from a high unemployment rate -- ten percent -- which is double the national average. Residents in favor of the library, however, could not convince the opposition that a library would help them develop skills that could improve their chances of securing employment. Currently, the main employer is a ham-packing factory. Though disappointed, Judith Burdine, president of the Kentucky Library Association, stated philosophically, "It's hard to sell people a product that they haven't already been using."
