Indiana Governor Seeks Library Consolidation; Most Libraries Resist
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 11/18/2008
- 238 libraries would be consolidated into 92 districts
- Many libraries want local control
- St. Joseph County Director Napoli supports consolidation
- Report due December 12
Since December 2007, when the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform issued a report on 
streamlining local government, many library leaders expressed wariness about the report’s call to reorganize library systems by county and to ensure that unserved residents get service. Many librarians suggest that giving up local control for a “one size fits all” strategy is wrong, with some of the most vociferous blogging at Save Our Small Public Libraries.
In some other states, such as Florida, consolidation has been accomplished with the carrot of state aid to districts, but no such aid is on the table so far. Then again, Gov. Mitch Daniels, who won reelection in November, has political momentum, and the state legislature is expected to take up the issue in early 2009.
ILF and State Library
The Indiana Library Federation has expressed caution, stating that, it “supports legislation that will provide additional options for unserved areas to be afforded libraries.” However, it also “supports a thorough evaluation of the cost-savings of the recommendations and an approach that allows each library and or library district input into the determination as to what is the best approach for it and its patrons. The Federation encourages legislation that allows for local variations in public libraries.”
It also supports measures that allow collaboration and other cooperative agreements to provide cost savings.
State Librarian Roberta Brooker commended the commission for aiming to guarantee equal and equitable service, given that about 400,000 Indiana residents are underserved or unserved by a library district. However, the State Library has funded a study to review the impact of consolidation on services and public finance. That report is expected by December 12.
“The State Library is currently working with the library community to not only address the recommendations of the Commission and find collective solutions that best reflect those recommendations, but also to implement new methods of collaboration and resource sharing to maximize available tax funding and improve library services to all Hoosiers,” Brooker told LJ.
“When we have our plan ready, rest assured that as needed and appropriate we will ask for help from the library community outside of Indiana,” Indiana Chapter Councilor Terry Rheinheimer recently stated in a message to the American Library Association (ALA) Council electronic mailing list.
Indiana Public Library Coalition
That report is being conducted with the Indiana Public Library Coalition, which is supported by most public libraries. The Coalition is working with Wooden and Associates, a Louisville-based consulting team experienced in library matters, to help chart a strategy. It is scheduled to present a summary of its work at the Indiana Library Federation Conference on November 19. Among the strategies under discussion are “substantial strengthening of trustee leadership roles”; insistence on high performance standards; “full, immediate statewide integration of new technologies”; and new support from the State Library.
The groups hopes to offer a new perspective “on how to achieve economies of scale and weave an efficient, full-access service system from the ground up rather than the top down.”
In one county, differing views
Meanwhile, in St. Joseph County, Connie Jo Swanson, director of the Walkerton-Lincoln Township Public Library, told LJ that consolidation plans scared off a $3 million donation for a new $5 million building, three times the size of the current 4500-square-foot former clothing store.
“We keep our costs as low as possible,” Swanson said, explaining that “we depend a lot on the goodwill of community” to maintain the library. The library doesn’t yet have a web site; Swanson has an undergraduate library degree but not an MLS.
She acknowledged that, “in a perfect world, there’d be a certain amount of advantage to be part of a large system,” but said “my community is extremely rural, extremely isolated,” and local residents, a good number of whom can’t afford to drive, wouldn’t make it to a library under consolidation.
Don Napoli, director of the St. Joseph County Public Library and one of the few library directors to publicly support consolidation, told LJ, “Nobody wants to lose their boards, nobody wants to lose control of their own library.” Though his is a county library in name, only about 11 of 32 current county libraries cover the full county; one community with a separate library in St. Joseph County directly borders the central city of South Bend.
As for Swanson’s concerns, Napoli suggested, “They might get a better library… It’s more likely that we could build a new branch for them before they’re going to afford it.” He acknowledged that, statewide, there probably wouldn’t be much cost savings from consolidation, but “I think it’ll result in better libraries.”
He said it was natural for library leaders to want to keep local control. “But if they’re thinking the status quo is going to stay the way it is, they’re wrong,” he said. Also, said Napoli, library leaders should come up with an alternative that the governor and state legislature would accept—and that would have the support of all libraries.
Beyond consolidiation, unelected library boards will have trouble maintaining fiscal autonomy, as the commission has recommended that all library budgets be approved by local governments. “They may be able to retain their boards, but they’re not going to have taxing authority,” Napoli predicted.
