Public Support Essential for Public Library - December 2003
The Ithaca Journal
December 2003
by Gary Woloszyn, President, Tompkins County Public Library Board of Trustees
On a bright October day, the inauguration of Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman began at the Tompkins County Public Library. This historic moment celebrated not only President Lehman's commitment to work closely with community leaders, but also reminded us of Ezra Cornell's philanthropic gift to the people of Tompkins County. Ezra Cornell established the Cornell Free Library in 1868, even before the chartering of Cornell University. This gift was extraordinary in the fact that the "seed money" to fill an important community need was generously donated by a private individual but the operating budget would be maintained by public funds. This is a classic example of what is being commonly referred to as a "public-private partnership."
Today, 135 years later, supporting a public library with both private funds and public tax dollars is not only desirable, it is a necessity. For the Tompkins County Public Library, private support from individuals, businesses and foundations, enables the library to reach beyond the basics and offer enhanced library services like Sunday hours and a Health Information Center.
In fact, our community is exceedingly passionate and generous with their library, with almost 11% of our budget arriving from private sources, four times the national average.
But it is public support which makes the very existence a public library possible. Theoretically, these public funds provide sufficient, secure and stable funding on an annual basis. The Tompkins County Charter actually requires the County Legislature to provide sufficient funds for the operation and maintenance of a public library.
When a community establishes a library, it also accepts future responsibility for its financial stability. In order to accomplish this, a portion of property taxes is designated towards library expenses. But how much is enough?
In a survey conducted in 2001 to determine the future library needs of Tompkins County, Dr. George D'Elia found that county residents overwhelmingly favored higher county support for their library. Community support in New York ranged from a high of $223.55 per capita to a low of .28, with an average in New York State being $32.17. County residents that used the TCPL responded that per capita support should be $98.90 and non-users responded with a lower amount of $44.11. The proposed 2004 budget designates the per capita allotment for the Library at $19.00!
The library represents some of our most cherished ideals: free speech, free thought, and the opportunity to better yourself with knowledge available to all. It is a great equalizer, serving all ages, ethnic groups and economic levels with a blind eye.
It is a central meeting place, a hub of community information on all issues, including those which are controversial. A public library reflects the society in which we live-collecting the voices of authors from all countries, distributing information in all formats and providing numerous forums for performances, exhibits, discussions, and learning.
This is the vision of what our library could be-achievable only through the collective will of the community. As a community, we have the responsibility to inform our elected officials that support for the library that they have built over the last 135 years should be robust and secure.
Yet sufficient public funding has been lacking since the library moved to its new location. Plans for gradually replacing the privately donated "seed money" of the new Tompkins County Library with an adequate base of public supported dollars never materialized. We have seen patron usage climb dramatically in the new location without the necessary base support of public funding growing adequately. Our 2003 operating budget (combined public and private) was 10% less than 2002 resulting in staff reduction of 7.5 full time equivalences from 2002. It is already difficult to meet the needs of the community with a skeletal staff, a negligible acquisitions budget, and no dollars allocated for technological upgrades.
Given the austere 2004 county budget, users, users will find staff and services of the new library reduced even more. With staff reductions approaching 25% of 2001 numbers, the staff that remains will be unable to meet customer service expectations of prompt and professional assistance. Newly released materials will be scarce, favorite library programs will be reduced, some Internet workstations will not be functional, and backlogs of items to be re-shelved or new items waiting for processing will frustrate those accustomed to efficient processing.
In November 2000 we opened the doors of a library we were proud of. Visitors from around the country are amazed at what has been accomplished. It is a testament to the power of the people in this community who declared that a new public library was needed and it was important to them. The library is a great community resource but can only fulfill the community expectations if it is supported in its base needs.
Alternative ways of funding must become a new source of this support. We will talk more about possible new avenues of support in the coming year. In the meantime, we look ahead to exercising all our dedication and creativity to serve the public.
