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| Libraries Work Because We Do! (Photo credit: circulating) |
Look carefully at the Mayor’s budget. It does not restore
one cut to the City’s library system. It does not return librarians who were
replaced by self-service check out systems. It does not replenish the materials
budget which was slashed from $1.8 million in FY 2008 and is now down to
$677,000.
It pretends to be an appropriate size budget for a library
system that serves a population of 450,000. But through slashing and cutting
and intimidation of staff who are afraid to speak out about what has been done
to the library system in Long Beach, this budget helps feeds into the myth promulgated
by the Mayor about the inevitable demise of libraries. After all, he told the
Los Angeles Times that because of the internet, libraries have become smaller.
The library budget totals only 3.1 percent of the general fund. The FY 2014 budget proposes spending one-time funds for the
north library furniture and books but does not budget one penny for staff.
Small funds are proposed for tables to plug in lap tops but no funds are
proposed to upgrade the wiring necessary to feed electricity to the lap tops.
Minimal funding is proposed for some roof repairs – but details of which
libraries to be repaired are missing. No funding is proposed to fix and repair
all of the branch libraries that suffer from infrastructure neglect.
If we allow these cuts to remain and the library system to
be diminished it is because we haven’t made it clear to our elected officials
that libraries are more than a book-lending service – especially during bad
economic times and high unemployment. Libraries add to the city’s economic
growth and vitality by providing access to information and research, literacy
programs, and spaces for reading, relaxing and working. For some, libraries are
a safety net where they can access the internet.
Our libraries are providing numerous resources in various
forms. We need to educate our elected officials what would will be lost if
adequate funding is not provided for our libraries. Perhaps then, as one
supporter of libraries wrote: “they will see a future for the library that is
worth funding and avoid the folly of penny wise and pound foolish decisions
that would withdraw this key service from the public.”
