Editorial: Too Clever by Half?
White's words of warning are still relevant
By Francine Fialkoff, Editor-in-Chief -- Library Journal, 5/15/2006
Whenever I read about libraries being the best government for the least money, I mentally applaud. How clever and creative librarians are at making those dollars stretch to deliver all the service they do. Every once in a while, however, I'm reminded of Herb White's cautionary tales in LJ.
His message had many variations, but at its most basic went like this: if librarians continue to do more with less—as budgets go up only slightly, remain the same, or are cut—and accept low salaries, they give funders no incentive to improve either library budgets or salaries. Indeed, their actions provoke just the opposite response, and librarians have no one to blame for future cuts but themselves. For over a decade, White hammered LJ readers with similar observations, courtesy of the late management guru Peter Drucker, whom he revered.
After years of being inculcated by White, I confess it's hard to put his cautions aside. I was reminded of them recently by an opinion piece in the Las Vegas Review-Journal (4/2/06) lauding the Las Vegas–Clark County Library District, NV, for “a cost-cutting strategy...that limited the number of new hires and postponed the purchase of new equipment” after the library lost a construction bond issue in 2003. The result: $20 million in savings that went into a Capital Projects Fund, enabling the library to move forward this year with construction of a new branch and renovations and improvements at other branches.
Now, I'm a huge fan of the library and its executive director, Dan Walters (who is currently president of the Public Library Association). It well deserved being named the LJ/Gale Library of the Year in 2003, and it continues to serve its patrons well. It has a dynamic, community-based staff noted for developing new services.
Being short-handed doesn't seem to have diminished the library's use, either. A press release in March 2006 reveals a rise of 105 percent in circulation, 84 percent in visits, and 1000 percent in computer use over the last five years. And the savvy Walters has even figured out how to operate the new branch without additional funds. The library is turning over its Henderson-based branch to that city and moving the staff and materials to the soon-to-be-built system branch.
Finally, as Geoff Schumacher, the op-ed author, writes, after the new branch opens and other upgrades are completed in 2009, “Walters wants to return to the voters with a bond proposal to build more libraries in underserved areas of the valley. He intends to sell voters on the district's track record of fiscal responsibility and good service.... He can count on my vote,” says Schumacher. If all goes as Walters hopes, the library can count on solid support.
Not every library is in a hot area like Las Vegas, however, with its sprouting population and booming construction. We've heard the stories from all over the country: to save costs in many cities, branch managers are being assigned to oversee clusters of branches rather than an individual branch. Library assistants are being hired in place of professional librarians, so that already low salaries can be even lower, and jobs disappear or are downgraded. Ultimately, materials and service must be affected.
Indeed, it's not enough to deliver the same services. Even when librarians achieve sufficient hours and materials, they need to make the case for increased services, too, like downloadable audio and video (see p. 60–63), ebooks, better web sites, remote access—whatever the 21st-century patron ­demands.
White warned nearly 14 years ago, “[W]e will never have proper support from public officials for libraries until they understand poor funding produces bad libraries....” (LJ 9/15/92). That's a warning still worth heeding.
