A Call to Librarians and the Community

The financial situation for libraries is in a very difficult place. As we get busier and busier, as people want more and varied things from their library, funding resources are drying up. They say we need to do more with less. Well, Libraries have always done more with less, but there does come a time, when we just can't do any more than we are already doing. The following is a letter I recently wrote to Library Journal in response to an editorial about free and fee.

Even Andrew Carnegie didn't really believe in the “Free” Library. When he gave money for communities to build libraries, he required that the community charge a tax to keep the building up and running. I think that his intent was that a library should make everything freely (readily) available to anyone who came into the building.

The bottom line, and if Mr. Carnegie were alive today I think that he would agree, is that libraries and services cost money and someone has to pay for them. Schools charge the biggest portion of the property tax dollar, they garner large amounts of funding from State and Federal resources, and they still charge fees for various services. The Park District takes more tax money than the library and they charge an additional fee for every program that they offer. The City, County, and Community Colleges all charge larger fees than the public library and still they ask everyone to pay additionally for services.

When are we librarians going to wake up and realize that we are doing ourselves and our communities a disservice by saying the library is free? It is incumbent upon us to find additional revenue sources to fund all that we offer to EVERY resident in our districts.

I feel certain that there are cost effective ways to modify the way we provide services to our communities. These are the questions that we need to ask regularly of ourselves and of each other, but I believe very strongly that we are making a huge mistake in throwing the word FREE around as if everything we do has no value.
People who know me, know that at this moment, I would include a expletive. Maybe I should. Maybe it would wake some people up. Shock the senses. Offend you enough to move toward action. When are we going to get tired enough of doing without, of underpaying our staff, of just eking by, and take action? It’s a simple action, really. First we must admit to ourselves that libraries are anything but free.
Everything that we do, everything that we offer costs money, and we have to have money to provide all the services and materials that the public wants and needs.
They say that we receive what we give. Well, then what do we expect when we keep saying that it’s free. We send the message that we don’t need the money.

MasterCard has a great campaign. They recognize that life and doing things doesn't come without a cost, but the reward is . . . PRICELESS. Well isn't that true about libraries as well? Ten bestsellers: $300.00; five DVDs: $100.00, A really funny performer: $300.00; a subscription to Library Journal, $157.99; The Library: PRICELESS but not FREE.