What's Happening In Public Libraries

The Mayo Clinic has pledged $500,000 to the Rochester Public Library Foundation, MN, to fund new and expanded services. The gift will expand youth services and services to non-English-speaking patrons, provide support for those without access to basic technology, and enlarge collections. The pledge includes an initial gift of $250,000 and a promise of $50,000 per year for five years, in matching grants. To recognize the gift, the library's trustees will name the young adult area in honor of the Mayo Clinic.

Staffers at the Regina Public Library, SK, returned to work May 13 after striking for about a month. They walked off the job April 16 after a series of one-day strikes at the main library and branches to abet union contract negotiations (see Late Bulletins , LJ 5/1/02, p. 13). Neither side disagreed about a proposed three percent a year wage increase over a three-year period, but they remained divided over wage equity for the mostly female staff and over funding the health plan. The contract, according to the Leader-Post, includes a commitment to study the pay equity issue and calls for establishment of an employer-paid extended health plan.

Up to 18 cities in Contra Costa County, CA, can extend library hours, thanks to $1.1 million in matching funds from the county. For the first time in the Contra Costa County Library's (CCCL) history, ongoing funding has been allotted to the library system's budget from the county's general fund. The money will be used to keep branch libraries open beyond the county's 29-hour per week minimum, provided cities match the county contribution. Additionally, another $200,000 will be used to purchase books. Fifty supplemental staffers, equally divided among professional, paraprofessional, and clerical positions, have already been hired to handle the extra hours.

The Spokane Public Library has responded to a citywide mandate to cut budgets by 5.7 percent by eliminating or not filling 13 positions, shortening branch hours, and cutting back its materials budget. The impact will be greater than it seems at first glance, as the plan must be fully implemented for the remainder of the fiscal year, which began in January. The cut amounts to $406,000, with $75,000 taken out of the books and materials budget, $44,000 from miscellaneous nonpersonnel items, $8000 in facilities savings, and the remainder in staff elimination.

The Tacoma Public Library's central facility has been a refuge for local homeless people facing a decline in social services. Now the library board has restricted patrons from bringing bedrolls, big boxes, or bulky bags into the library. Though apparently aimed at the homeless, "[The rule is] not directed to keep homeless people out of the library," library spokesman David Domkoski told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "The library is open to anyone who wants to use it." The Seattle Public Library already has such a rule.

The Oliver Wolcott Library in Litchfield, CT, has dropped its late fees and replaced them with an honor system called the "Conscience Box." Director Ann Marie White said, according to the Register Citizen, "We first started tinkering with this last winter, and it has worked beautifully so now it is library policy. We'll be doing it every day for an indefinite period of time." She said the new system brought in as much revenue as the previous one and created a happier group of patrons.

The self-described "El Dildo Bandito" of Boulder, CO—who last November removed an art exhibit of ceramic phalluses from the Boulder Public Library—has received a deferred sentence after pleading no contest to second-degree criminal tampering, a misdemeanor. Bob Rowan's one-month sentence requires him to stay away from the library and the artist. The judge in the case said that "the library is a wonderful place where they don't have to hold everything he agrees [with] in them."