Invisible Library Infrastructure at Risk - March 2005

The Ithaca Journal
March 3, 2005
Janet Steiner, Library Director, Tompkins County Public Library

How does a bank sort your cancelled checks? How does a college schedule classrooms? How does a grocery store manage its daily food deliveries? Behind every organization an invisible infrastructure holds everything together.

At the Tompkins County Public Library, we have many invisible systems to help us manage the day-to-day functioning of our library. Other invisible systems extend library services beyond our four walls, enlarging access to the holdings of other libraries.

Library users can seamlessly and effortlessly go on-line and discover which library among the 32 in our Finger Lakes Library System owns what. This computerized “card” catalog allows a user to request items from any of these libraries. The item is then physically delivered to a home library, followed by a notice that the book has arrived.

This invisible infrastructure is provided by the Finger Lakes Library System (FLLS). The computer system, Dynix, is owned and maintained by the Finger Lakes Library System, not by the Tompkins County Public Library. The delivery service is also provided by FLLS, as is the notification that a book is being held for you. Extending the interlibrary loan service beyond the Finger Lakes region is another state funded library organization, the South Central Regional Library Council.

This free lending and borrowing of library materials, independent of ownership, has increased over the past ten years. The Tompkins County Public Library is now lending 21,700 items annually to users outside Tompkins County, a 100% increase since 1994. Concurrently, our users are borrowing 8700 items from other libraries, with a similar 100% increase over the past decade.

Most people are unaware that this invisible infrastructure is provided by New York State appropriations—not through local taxes. Fewer still know that in 2004, the New York State Legislature and the Governor reduced funding to libraries and library systems to 1994 levels. Funding for 2005 promises to be the same.

The significance of this reduction to our invisible infrastructure is that local dollars must now make up the difference. When the local dollars aren’t there, then services are curtailed or even eliminated.

Over decades, for example, the Tompkins County Public Library has provided professional reference services to smaller area libraries .Funded by New York State, this “invisible” service equalized access to information for many thousands of library users living in rural areas. This service was cancelled in 2004 due to the reduction in state funding.

Thousands of dollars in book purchases from the Central Book Aid program were also cancelled in 2004, when it became clear that support for library aid in Albany could not override the Governor’s budget cuts. These books are purchased not only for the use of Tompkins County residents, but for all library patrons in the Finger Lakes Library System.

Where are the supporters for the invisible but valuable and widely-utilized library services? Most of our supporters are, understandably, focused at the local level because 70% of our funding comes from Tompkins County property owners. The 6.5% which represents state funding, is rapidly eroding, but is absolutely essential to our library.

Sometime in the summer of 2005, our Dynix system will disappear, to be replaced by Polaris, a new and user-friendly computer system. We are very excited about this “migration” and think our users will be equally pleased. But consider this: Polaris will be owned and operated by the Finger Lakes Library System which is 90% state funded. With no reversal of the downward trend in state support for libraries, many users could find themselves without the services that they have come to rely on--services which they have taken for granted.

Our library is stronger and our service is better due to our connection and coordination with libraries everywhere. The visionaries who created this infrastructure understood that libraries cannot stand alone. Not even the largest research libraries in the country can function without resource-sharing networks. Our state legislators must take steps now to stop the erosion of state support for library services. While the services may be invisible, they are critical for effective library service in 2005.

You can help by contacting your state legislators and urging them to restore state funding for libraries. For more information contact the New York Library Association at www.nyla.org.