Ithacans Need a Better-Funded Library

Ithaca Times
November 30, 2005
By Janet Steiner, Library Director
Tompkins County Public Library

On November 17th I stood before a group of about 50 members of the community and carefully explained the rationale for requesting a special appropriation from Ithaca City School District residents to increase library funding by $540,000. It was an exercise that the Board of Trustees and I will repeat frequently over the next 10 weeks to encourage our community’s careful contemplation of a solution which we believe is a near-term solution to chronic under-funding and resultant financial imbalances.

But this isn’t just a financial rescue. The funding will provide enormous value to taxpayers in the form of increased hours and books/materials, while preserving existing services. That’s what our education-minded community expects and deserves.

Since we moved into the new facility in 2001, our library’s budget has been annually under-funded. We are grateful for the monies that come from our County – especially the assistance provided to create our new home – and we empathize with the plight of legislators who work hard to strike a balance between the investment in County services and a reasonable tax structure to support them.

Unfortunately, the annual county appropriations to the library do not even cover the costs of minimal staffing of library. Despite surges of increased usage of the library in the past five years, funding for the library actually decreased for two years! In order to accommodate inadequate funding, we have reduced our staffing levels, with eight full time equivalent positions now unfunded; eliminated new services such as the Health Information Center; reduced evening hours; and cut our acquisition budget in half. We have also increased the use of volunteers, streamlined all procedures, and pared back expenses by scrutinizing every expense line.

This state of affairs was predictable. When we moved, rather than following a planned transition to increase library funding, the county legislature insisted on a year-by-year evaluation of library funding needs. As County Administrator Steve Whicher pointed out, this has led to a massive structural budget deficit which must be addressed. Until that time comes, we are operating a facility more than twice as large as the old library, with significantly higher program attendance, circulation, and patronage – with fewer staff members than the old library!

The result of this is a bleak financial future for the library and its services. Unless we do something soon, our reserve fund will be depleted by the end of 2006, all to be used to maintain state-mandated minimum levels of service

Help is on the way. Tim Joseph, currently Chair of the Tompkins County Legislature has talked with me about creating a joint library trustee/county legislator committee in early 2006 to come to agreement about the library’s long-term needs and the County’s obligations. We appreciate his deliberate approach to this challenge.

In the interim, we are taking advantage of an opportunity used by almost 40% of public libraries in New York State: a public referendum on library funding. We will ask ICSD voters to approve a tax levy to fund increased hours and increased books and materials.

Why only ICSD residents? Well, citizens in the school districts of Groton, Dryden, Newfield, Trumansburg and Lansing either are or will be paying not only for TCPL, but also for their own local library. But ICSD residents pay less for library services than any other community in the County, even though they represent the majority of the population, library users, and total assessed value in the County.

Even if the appropriation is approved – which would cost 17 cents per $1,000 of assessed value – ICSD residents would still be paying less for library services than residents in Trumansburg and Groton.

What do ICSD residents receive by agreeing to direct an additional $25 a year per household to the library? They get the certainty of hours that serve their needs. They get a richer collection of books and materials, which is why they come to the library in the first place. They eventually get a recalibration of funding from donors, which allows our Friends and Foundation to make the library a better, more interesting place.

In short, they get the library they deserve. We look forward to sharing this message in the coming weeks. Your questions and comments are welcome. Send them to LibraryDirector@tcpl.org.