Editorial- Right Message, Wrong Messenger

Libraries under the gun again! In times like these, when the need for library service seems so urgent and so obvious, libraries are under pressure to cut budgets, hours, and services. Politicians, academic administrators, legislatures, and governors target library budgets when they are but a tiny piece of the cost of government. Even though the return from destructive library budget cuts is so small, budgeters regularly find them to be an easy place to wield the axe.

It is not because of our message. The facts of the library story are compelling, and they are widely known. We've been using them to make our case for decades. America has the best system of libraries in the world, heavily used and heavily needed. Nearly 80 percent of the people use public libraries frequently. The advent of computers has not only increased the use of libraries, it has added massive dimensions to public expectations of libraries. Increasingly, as Linda Braun points out , more is demanded of librarians. In addition to their special traditional skills, they are being asked to teach people how to find information, evaluate it, and manipulate it on new technological apparatus.

Heavy library use both onsite and from remote locations proves that the people know how valuable libraries can be. Circulation is headed upward again, reference services are strong, and libraries see more traffic than McDonald's. We seem to have the right message, so perhaps we've used the wrong messenger to deliver it.

Despite the strength of our case, libraries in devastated New York City fear big budget cuts as the city grapples with a new deficit. In Portland, OR, the very popular hours of the Multnomah County Library will be trimmed. Washington's benighted governor threatens to close the heavily used state library. In Arkansas, the governor backed away from eliminating all state library funds, instead cutting them by more than one half. Trustees and administrators at dozens of colleges demand library budget parings despite growing student and faculty need. Federal aid barely equals previous years.

Decades ago, when Abe Beame was mayor of New York, he was inundated with mail and calls from irate New Yorkers who opposed library budget decreases. Just over a year ago, New Haven, CT, Librarian Jim Welbourne took me to meet Mayor John DeStefano. In our conversation, the mayor drove the point home. "Jim has built a constituency for the public library here," said De Stefano. "They tell me they get good library service and that they need more. That convinces me. I know Jim wants it, but when the people use the library and they speak up, I listen."

It is not about librarians telling politicians. It can't be done exclusively through the media, although that helps. When Susan Kent wants support in Los Angeles, or Deborah Jacobs in Seattle, or Louise Blalock in Hartford, or Jim Welbourne in New Haven, they meet with and talk to the people. They don't simply tell the library story, they set up and attend hundreds of meetings. They ask the people to participate in the creation of that story and help tell it to the governing authorities, the politicians, and the voters. That gets support. When librarians work with users to determine what they need and the libraries deliver, we see results. When the people, the ultimate governing authority, help set the agenda and receive the services and libraries they've been promised, they tell the politicians. No politician in his or her right mind will oppose that kind of mandate.

Direct library communication with the media and with elected officials is still necessary, but the best strategy is as old as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. When library service is created of the people, by the people, and for the people, and the people tell their leaders about it, it will survive and succeed.