PVLD Director's Blog

"Libraries Shine in Tough Economic Times"

I've written before about how busy our PVLD libraries are this summer as fewer families are travelling, economic pressures make the free and low-cost services of the library more attractive, and we offer a cool (in more ways than one!) place to come on hot summer days.

This report from Tuesday's edition of All Things Considered on National Public Radio makes it clear we are not alone as libraries across the country are seeing record use.

I just wish our State legislators would realize that in tough economic times local government services like public libraries are more important than ever!

Unattended Children

A little humor goes a long way!  Thank's to Stephanie Weaver of the Experienceology blog for sharing this gem.

Teens and Reading

The past couple of Sundays the New York Times has had two very interesting articles about teen literature and reading. 

The first, I'm Y.A. and I'm OK from the July 20th edition of the Times, is about the "increasingly porous border" between the realms of "adult" and "young adult" literature.  This is an issue PVLD has been discussing particularly with regard to our Science Fiction collection, where most of the best new works are classified as YA even though they would be of great interest to adults.  We are planning to create a single merged Science Fiction collection to address that particular genre, but as the New York Times article points out the problem exists across genres. Wonderful literature of interest to all ages is being "hidden" in the YA section of libraries and bookstores where adult browsers are unlikely to find it.  Merging collections across the board isn't really the answer, as our YA collections are an integral part of the "teen space" that we have worked so hard to establish as means of attracting teens to the library and encouraging them to read.  Parts of the solution may be in special, temporary displays of YA materials where adults are likely to see them or in "staff picks" lists for adults that include YA titles....

The good news is that if YA literature is flourishing to the extent that publishers want to classify items as YA, then teens must be reading...so I thought this past Sunday's NY Times article on online vs traditional reading was all the more interesting as it featured a number of teens who do their primary reading online and probably rarely if ever pick up a YA novel.  The article does a good job of articulating some of the differences between online and traditional reading without taking sides in the ongoing debate abou how important traditional, paper-based reading skills really are.  I thought some of the teens' comments about why they read online were really perceptive, and the idea that online reading might offer real advantages to people with dyslexia and other learning disabilities was something I had never thought about. 

Interesting stuff!

Budget Anxiety

I suspect my posts for the next few days will have a financial theme as we wrestle with the prospect that the Legislature will use local property taxes as a source of revenue to balance the State budget with dire consequences for libraries like PVLD and most County libraries that depend on property taxes as their primary source of revenue.

Today's update from our California Library Association lobbyists was not encouraging - but it does provide a good overview of the current impasse in Sacramento.  Here at PVLD we've embarked on a campaign to enlist as many library supporters as possible in telling the Legislature to keep their sticky fingers off our local money with flyers and posters in the library, information on the website, and email blasts.

PVLD employees are understandably anxious about the situation, and the Department Managers and I are doing our best to provide provide frequent communications.  For those who are interested in the view from inside, here's the text of an email sent to all employees today:

To all PVLD staff – 

I know many of you have questions about the potential “borrowing” of property tax revenue and the impact on PVLD.  At this stage not much is clear, but this is what we DO know:

 

1.        The state can legally borrow up to 8% of our property tax revenue – this equates to about $500,000 loss of revenue for PVLD this fiscal year, and occurs in a context where we also know we are facing a $300,000 budget deficit next fiscal year.  My goal will be to find ways to address the shortfall without having to lay off any staff – I believe this is achievable but it will be challenging.

2.       The proposal by Legislators to borrow property tax revenues is just that, a proposal.  We do not know whether it will actually happen, and we may not know for some time.  The best thing we can do to prevent it happening is to make our voices heard by calling, writing, and emailing the Governor, leaders of the Senate and Assembly, and local legislators. 

Until we know the outcomes of the State budget situation we would be foolish to commit any funds that are not absolutely essential.  This means we are not filling vacant positions and are asking people to work across Department boundaries to help cover as necessary.  We currently have two vacant positions – a part-time Adult Services Librarian and a part-time Annex Assistant that will not be filled until we are certain there will be no loss of property tax revenue.  We will all need to pitch in to help cover these positions as necessary as well as any others that might arise. 

3.       Department Managers are developing options for reducing costs and for generating additional revenue.  Your Manager has information about the options that have been identified to date.  Many of these will require approval of the Board of Trustees.  Some of them we may implement even if we don’t lose property tax revenues as they will help us address next year’s shortfall.

4.       We are trying to make wise decisions about cost reductions that don’t jeopardize our long-term future.  For example we hope to continue to invest in staff development, in technology innovation, in community outreach, and in facilities maintenance and improvement as if we fall behind in these areas we compromise the long-term viability of the library.  Similarly we don’t want to cut library services to the extent that usage and community support decrease.

 

How YOU can help –

 

1.        Make calls to legislators yourself and by making sure every library user gets information about the potential loss of revenue and how to contact legislators. 

2.       Identify cost reduction and revenue enhancement ideas and share them with your Department Manager.  (NB – I am still reviewing the list of ideas submitted in May and will announce a winner soon!  It’s been hard to find time to do the analysis)

3.       Continue to be flexible and to pitch in as needed so we can maintain high quality services across all PVLD locations and all departments.

4.       If you have questions, raise them with your Department Manager.  If they don’t know the answer they’ll find out.

 

Thanks for your support.

If you're a library supporter please help by calling our legislative leaders today!  Tell them that their failure to reach a budget agreement does not constitute a "fiscal emergency" that warrants raiding local property taxes...but if is the only way out of the impasse, public libraries, who by definition have limited ways of generating revenue to make up the shortfall must be exempted.  If not we will be forced to cut hours, services, and book purchase at the very time our communities need us most. 

Trying to keep the State's hands out of our pockets

We've spent the last few months preparing PVLD's 2008/2009 budget and 2009/2010 forecast in an environment where the only certainty is that property tax revenues (87% of our budget) are flattening and costs are rising.  We worked long and hard to reach a new Memorandum of Understanding with the union that represents most PVLD employees that is affordable but fair.  We've been actively pursuing additional sources of revenue such as expanded passport hours, as well as looking for opportunities to cut costs.  The net result - a budget (operating and major maintenance) that is barely, by the skin of our teeth, balanced for this fiscal year and a forecast of a $300,000 deficit for next year.

In that context you can imagine how dismaying it is to read an article like this on the front page of last Friday's LA Times.  If the State "borrows" all it is able to from local governments (8% of property tax revenues) PVLD could lose $500,000 of revenue this fiscal year.  It is hard to see how we could accomodate this level of shortfall without affecting services to our users...but staff are hard at work trying to find ways to do just that.

It's particulaly discouraging to see property tax revenues described as funds voters have "set aside"...a term used by both the LA Times and our local National Public Radio stations so my guess is it was in some kind of media release.  "Set aside" implies these monies are sitting somewhere unused and waiting to be tapped.  In reality, local governments rely on those revenues to fund current operating and capital needs.  At PVLD they are our primary source of revenue and fund everything from the purchase of books and other materials to public Internet access to staff costs.  The 13% of non-property-tax revenue comes directly from our library users and community in the form of usage fees (e.g. overdue fines, movie rental fees, meeting room rental fees), fees for non-traditional services we offer (e.g. passport acceptance and photo service, notary service, scanning and copying service), and fundraising (the revenues raised through the hard work of our Friends of the Library).  None of these can be relied upon in difficult economic times.  We also rely heavily on the efforts of over 200 volunteers who gave 28,000 hours of their time in 2007/2008 to help us serve our community. 

Not to mention the fact that library usage is growing despite our budget pressures.  When economic times are difficult people rely on the public library more than ever....so we are faced with doing more with less.

To imply that the property tax revenues have been "set aside" is simply wrong...as is the State's attempt to balance its budget at the expense of already stretched local government agenciesuch as PVLD.

If you agree, please contact the Governor and your local legislator and tell them!

Everything old is new again - the history of children's libraries

My friend Debby Stegura shared this fascinating article on the creation of children's libraries and the evolution of children's literature from the current issue of the New Yorker.

As I read the article I couldn't help thinking how fresh some of the issues and controversies of the late 19th and early 20th centures seem.  The "morally corrupting" influences that so concerned upright citizens of the late 1800s were novels not video games, and it was Dickens, Scott and Cooper that were considered "trashy" not manga, graphic novels, or the LA Weekly, but the desire of some adults to protect the young (often the offspring of others, not their own) from exposure to materials they deem inapprpriate remains the same.

I loved reading about the creation of the first children's reading areas, and the determined women who put in place many of the things we view as core elements of children's library services even today - story times, services to all (even the children of immigrants), the extension of borrowing privileges to children, the role of the librarian in reviewing and recommending books for publication.....

Even the issue of the unclear boundary between "children's" and "adult" literature is one  wwe wrestle with today.  Here at PVLD we have been having an active discussion about whether the way the collection is organized creates artificial distinctions between "adult" and "kids" materials and, for example, some of our librarians are working on a plan to merge the "adult" and "young adult" science fiction collections on the basis that these books will be of equal interest to both age groups.  With that in mind I enjoyed this quote from Katharine White, wife of E.B. and a formidable force in children's literature in her own right:

"It has always seemed to us that boys and girls who are worth their salt begin at twelve or thirteen to read, with a brilliant indiscrimination, every book they can lay their hands on. In the welter, they manage to read some good ones. A girl of twelve may take up Jane Austen, a boy Dickens; and you wonder how writers of juveniles have the brass to compete in this field, blithely announcing their works as “suitable for the child of twelve to fourteen.” Their implication is that everything else is distinctly unsuitable. Well, who knows? Suitability isn’t so simple." 
 

As anyone who is involved with the operation of a 21st century library knows, questions such as "how do you determine what material is suitable for whom, and whose responsibility is it?" or "what constitutes appropriate material to be added to the collection knowing that today's trash may be tomorrow's classic?" are as topical today as they were in the days of the formation of the New York Public Library Children's Room or the era of E.B. and Katharine White.

Read the article....you'll enjoy it!

What makes someone support the library?

OCLC, which provides cataloging and technology-related services to libraries worldwide, just issued its latest research study, From Awareness to Funding.  The whole report is over 200 pages long, so it will take me some time to read and digest it all.  The report is particularly timely as PVLD and the Peninsula Friends of the Library wrestle with how best to proceed with raising the capital for our branch improvement program in light of rising construction costs and the economic climate. 

The study identified eight important findings, most of which are as true for PVLD as they are for libraries as a whole:

1.  Most people claim they would support the library at the ballot box - fewer are firmly committed to it.

2.  There is a lot that people don't know about their public library.

3.  Library support is only marginally related to visitation.  Advocating for library support to library users focuses effort and energy on the wrong target group.

4.  Perceptions of the librarian are highly related to support. "Passionate librarians" who are involved in the community make a difference.

5.  The library occupies a very clear position in people's minds as a provider of practical answers and information.  This is a very crowded space, and to remain relevant in today's information landscape, repositioning will be required.

6.  Belief that the library is a transformational force in people's lives is directly related to their level of funding support.

7.  Increasing support for libraries may not necessarily mean a trade-off of financial support for other public services.

8.  Elected officials are supportive of the library - but not fully committed to increasing funding. 

Some of this I already knew - for example that many of the biggest givers of financial support to the library are probably not library uses, and that (despite our PR and communications efforts) there is a lot that people don't know about their library.

The one that really caught my attention was the role that "passionate librarians" who are involved in the community play in garnering support for the library.  This is something that I have long believed, but it was nice to see it validated by the research.

I see that one of the big challenges for PVLD is to truly engage our "passionate librarians" (we certainly have those!) and all of our employees as advocates and promoters of PVLD not just within the four walls of the library but out in the communities we serve.  We've made progress in this area, but there is still a way to go!

Pictures!

TIme is scarce this week, and they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I thought I'd share these recent photos from PVLD.

1.PVLD teens presenting book reviews and enjoying the activities at the recent American Library Association conference in Anaheim -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pvldteens/sets/72157606113443651/

Ali has more information about the teens' trip to ALA on the PVLD Teen Blog

2.  Photos from the Dialogue art exhibit that was at Peninsula Center this weekend.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/58977274@N00/sets/72157606155484763/show/

The first was a great opportunity for PVLD's teen volunteers to represent the library and to get more insight into the worlds of libraries, books, and publishing. 

 The second was a wonderful community-building event and a testament to artist Mike Garibaldi's passion for fostering community in our public spaces.  Now we're looking for more travelling art displays to host!

 

Want to Improve Your Social Life? Read a novel!

Thanks Stephen Abram for pointing to this great article on the link between reading fiction and social skills.  I'm a lifelong bookworm, and I loved the idea that my secret passion for "chick lit" might actually be helping me develop  "empathy and social acumen".  And what better incentive to spend some of the weekend ahead with some summer reading! 

Learning and the Google Generation

Today's TimesOnline has an interesting story by the mother of a 15 year old about how her son's approach to studying (earbuds in ears, moving between homework and Facebook...) differs from how she studied when she was that age.  The article is a personal take on what has been written about many times before - that "digital natives" interact with and process information differently than "digital immigrants", but its a nice summary of the concepts.

What I found more surprising than the article were the comments, most of which were quite reactionary in tone and content.  While I too wonder what kids are missing as they live more and more of their lives online and plugged in, it seems to me that we need to face reality and figure how we are going to serve, interact with, and someday employ a generation whose minds work quite differently from ours.  Saying that it shouldn't be so isn't really all that helpful!