Editorial: Lunch Is Hard To Swallow

Publishers Lunch got it wrong. It took a squib out of the Dallas Morning News online (April 26), headlined it "The Threat to Libraries," and broadcast it via its daily email to publishers, editors, agents, and other readers. The brief item followed a story about an independent bookseller closing, but with no context or explanation, it brought me up short.

"Many library systems are severely challenged, too," wrote Lunch, "by continuing cuts in funding. The Dallas Morning News reports: 'From coast to coast, budget strains and tax pressures are forcing cities to make hard choices about how to spend limited money, and libraries, much to many residents' dismay, are taking the hit.'

"Figures from the [American Library Association] say budget cuts nationwide over the last 18 months… '[comprise] as much as 50 percent in some states,' even as demand for services rises. Libraries were visited more than twice as much in 2002 as they were in 1990."

The simplicity of the message may be great for getting publishers worked up to lobby for libraries. Many of them do that already, of course, through the Association of American Publishers and the American Library Association (ALA) Washington Office's Library Business Alliance. The report sends a darker message about libraries' viability, buying power, and importance as a market for publishers.

So let's set the record straight. The Dallas Morning News story was prompted by the closing (since temporarily rescinded though by no means resolved) of the library in Bedford, TX. I certainly don't want to minimize the impact of a library closing its doors, but as Robert Martin, a Texan himself and outgoing head of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, noted in an interview with LJ, the reaction to the shutdown in Bedford (and in Salinas, CA) has been encouraging: "A small, unknown town closes its library, and the whole country goes crazy."

But what hits Bedford, TX, may not hit other cities or towns. In Greenburgh, just north of New York City, voters approved a referendum last month to replace their old library with one double the size. In Santa Clara County, CA, voters endorsed a measure that extends a library operating levy for another ten years. For every story of setbacks, there's another about building or expanding or new collections. One Nassau County, NY, library director told me circulation in her town had gone up 48 percent and that meant she had to put enough money into collections to meet that demand. Even Martin noted that "around the corner" from Bedford, in Rockwell County, voters approved a bond to build a new library. Fort Worth is building a new branch, too; even in Texas the news isn't all bad.

Lunch, unaware that libraries get very little money from state government, was really alarmed about states cutting library funding. Library budgets are primarily supported by localities through property taxes, not state or federal government. State and federal money together rarely provides more than 15 percent of library funds in any fiscal year.

A number of librarians tell me they have treated recent budget cuts differently from earlier times. In the early 1990s, they slashed book and materials budgets, a move from which it took them years to recover. Now, libraries are cutting hours and/or staff, replacing MLS librarians with those without degrees, or outsourcing more "processing" so that they can still provide current materials. I would not endorse all those measures, but to get public support restored it is more effective to show the public how valuable their libraries are: "If only my library were open more hours, then I could get to all that good stuff more often."

Publishers take heed. It's your "good stuff," too, that library users want. Libraries are still an important, substantial market for books (over $2 billion annually). Publishers Lunch can't be expected to know about the library world. It got it wrong.

fialkoff@reedbusiness.com