PVLD Director's Blog

What do librarians have in common with participants in the World Economic Forum in Davos?

As is to be expected, public libraries across the State are mobilizing to protest California Governor Jerry Brown's proposal to eliminate all State funding to support local public library services.  As an indicator of the level of concern, my earlier blog posts attempting to explain the impact of these cuts received far and away more hits than anything else I have written.

While like all of my colleagues I am concerned about the impact of the proposed cuts, I am also concerned that all too often our message has a "motherhood and apple pie" flavor that might be more reflective of our own beliefs and aspirations than the perceptions of people outside the library community (and by library community I mean not only librarians and others who work in libraries, but Friends of the Library groups, other library supporters, and our regular users).

Last week, for example, Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters wrote about the cuts to library funding.  The article is a good overview of the history of State funding for libraries, but what was of more interest to me were  comments.  Interspersed with many comments about the value of libraries were statements such as these:

• "Many libraries are now seeing as much as 50% of their circulation in Videos. Given that Netflix, Amazon, and dozens of other sources are now making video materials available on-line--why should the taxpayers get stuck with paying for the entertainment of the few people who don't want to pay for these materials themselves."
  
• "Public libraries currently consume about $12B nationally, and perhaps $1.2B-$1.5B in California. Most of this money is spent paying library staff to act as "hall monitors", or to move paper around the building (stacking, restacking, ordering, etc.) This is a massive waste of public money, as fewer and fewer people are actually reading books from public libraries. The cost of ebook readers is now getting down to the $100/unit range, so it becomes a better use of public funds to simply give away the readers, and let people buy their own e-books"
  
• "Libraries have become a haven for the homeless to hang around during the day and especially when bad weather occurs." 
  

What struck me about these comments was not that they are totally off base, but that in fact there is at least a grain of truth in all of them...the very grains of truth that likely led Governor Brown to think that eliminating State funding for libraries is an acceptable move in the face of overwhelming budget pressures.  What worries me is that, true believers that we are, the library community may dismiss or disregard these points of view rather than really listening to what these people are trying to say...and not just so we can tell them how wrong they are.

The thought that we need to be careful not to let our desire to "make our case" overrun the need to take on board legitimate criticism has been niggling away at me since the budget discussion has heated up.  Today I found a great articulation of why this is important - not in a library publication but in a Harvard Business Review blog post called Ten Things You're Not Allowed to Say at Davos shared by George Needham on Viral Optimism earlier today.

George notes that the all 10 things that HBR guest blogger Umar Haique identifies as needing to be discussed would make a heck of a library conference topic, and I agree, but I was particularly struck by #6:

"Your Mom tends to tell you what you want to hear.

Davos loves diversity — as long as said diversity doesn't carry the terrifying prospect of actually generating perspectives that question the primacy of the obsolete, crumbling paradigm known as industrial age capitalism. But here's the thing: especially in a time when your fundamental assumptions are breaking, it's probably your fiercest critics — not your compatriots — who have the sharpest, most resonant insights."

I wonder which of our most cherished beliefs about the value of libraries are, when seen by an outsider, an "obsolete, crumbling paradigm"?  If we don't, as Mr. Haque suggests, listen to our fiercest critics and not our compatriots, we risk not just telling the wrong stories but doing the wrong things with consequences that are greater than the loss of $30 million in funding. 

 

 

Read more, react less

For a busy Friday from the incomparable Nicholas Bate - why we should read more and react less

Have a great weekend!

 

The real impact of library budget cuts

This article from the USC Annenberg School of Communications Neon Tommy blog describes the real human impact of cuts to library hours and services better than I ever could.

It is true that PVLD serves communities very different from many of those served by the Los Angeles city and county library systems in terms of average income and demographics, but for many of our patrons, just as for those described in the article, the library is a place of refuge, a place of opportunity, and a home.

Each day people gather outside the doors of the Peninsula Center Library waiting for it to open, and each day the staff greets the same familiar faces - the retired gentlemen who come to read the financial press and kibbitz with each other and the staff, the people who come every day to use the computers to look for work or communicate with friends and family, and the parents and caregivers bringing little ones to story time.

At Malaga Cove Library a regular coterie of patrons come each day to read the newspapers and magazines, chat with staff members who have become friends, play chess, or visit with volunteers Pat and Gene down in the book sale area.   With its new Computer Mezzanine Malaga also has plenty of regulars who come each day to look for work, work on distance-learning programs, or surf the Internet. 

At all of the libraries, but particularly Miraleste, Peninsula Center, and the Annex the after school hours  bring  hundreds of students, sometimes accompanied by parents or tutors.  At the Annex and Miraleste the after-school crowd is made up mostly of middle school students who are too old for day care,too young to go home to an empty house, and whose parents are struggling financially just to keep their kids in our excellent schools.  For them, and their parents, the library is a haven - a safe place to be with friends, hang out, play some games, and maybe get a bit of homework done.  Peninsula Center is a magnet for high school students who need access to more sophisticated materials for their homework, and want to study in groups or work on group projects.

As school library hours, collections, and services fall victim to the unrelenting budget pressures faced by our local school district the public library increasingly serves as the de facto school library and our longstanding role in assisting with schoolwork is only growing just as our budget for purchasing the books and other materials to meet this need is shrinking.

And yes, at all of our libraries even in affluent Palos Verdes we have people who are lonely, socially isolated and even homeless for whom the library is a safe place to wile away the hours and be in the company of other human beings.

For many people, for many reasons, the public library is a lifeline.  When funding shrinks, the lifeline frays...and as the Neon Tommy post points out, the consequences are greater than many people realize. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remembering Aunt Vera

Forgive me for making this blog post more personal than most, but this has been a momentous and difficult week for my family. 

My mother's sister, my beloved Aunt Vera, died very unexpectedly last Friday, leaving a huge hole in our family. 

My mother was a midlife "accident" for her parents, born in Russia in the midst of World War II and nearly 15 years younger than her next youngest sibling, my Aunt Vera.  With her parents and two oldest sisters preoccupied with putting food on the table, Vera was responsible for much of my mother's care as a young child.

As the war progressed the family became refugees, making their way in very difficult circumstances to Germany and then Sweden where they spent time in Displaced Persons camps in Germany and Sweden before ultimately making their way to the United States.  During that time Vera met and married my Uncle Stach, and had two children both of whom died before the family made it to the U.S.  The second child died just before Vera and Stach were to board the ship for the U.S., and my aunt had to leave the body in the care of her next oldest sister who arranged the burial.  I can't even imagine how she found the strength to make a new life for herself in America.

Once in the U.S. Aunt Vera and Uncle Stach lived in a basement apartment in my grandparents' home, and had four more children.  My mother was almost like an extra child for them as her own parents worked and my grandmother travelled extensively on behalf of the Bethel Mission, a Christian missionary organization founded by my great-grandfather (the Mission and its history is a story in itself!) leaving my mother in the care of Vera and Stach for weeks at a time.

To say that my mom and her sister were close doesn't come close to describing their relationship.

Vera and Stach took jobs in manufacturing and over time created a middle class lifestyle for themselves and their children through sheer hard work and grit.

My mother and father settled in Santa Barbara as newlyweds, where I was born.  Several years later my mother's parents moved to Santa Barbara, and along with them moved the offices of what by then was called the American European Bethel Mission.  They were followed by my Aunt Vera and Uncle Stach shortly thereafter. 

My parents divorced when I was 8, and we moved just a few blocks away from my grandparents, aunt and uncle.  As my mom juggled several jobs to support my sister and me, we spent lots of time at Vera and Stach's house...eating snacks of butter and sugar on bread, learning to drink tea Russian-style with lots of sugar or jam, playing in their large backyard, pestering my cousin Ika, and laughing until our sides hurt at I Love Lucy and other old comedy shows.

Later, my mother remarried and we moved to my stepfather's home in Canada.  (There is yet another long story in the relationship between my stepdad's family and mine, which spans 4 generations and has its roots in Russia, but that is for another time).  As a teens my sister and I spent our summers in California, splitting our time between my father's house in Santa Barbara and my paternal grandparents' in Redondo Beach.  My dad and stepmother worked long hours, leaving us bored and at loose ends.  Visiting my grandmother and my Aunt Vera became a refuge - they would feed us, let us read whatever we wanted from their extensive libraries, and just spend time with them.  Aunt Vera walked miles every day, and never minded having me join her.  We talked about books, and life, and family and laughed and laughed.

When I was in college and she visited us in Canada, or I visited her in California, she would help me with my German studies and make sure I had the correct "hoch Deutsch" pronunciation.

Once I was an adult the opportunities to spend time with her became much less frequent, and as we both got older our views on many issues became more divergent (she getting more conservative and me getting more liberal!) but our bond was still strong. When we visited her we were always treated to "chai" - tea and Russian delicacies - and never allowed to lift a finger because we were guests in her home.

As my grandmother grew more frail and then died Aunt Vera took over the running of the Mission.  She also was a translator, and a poet.  In her later years her poetry became very well-known in the Russian evangelical Christian community, in that world she was a rock star.  Thousands of people would come to hear her speak, fans would turn up on her doorstep wanting to meet her or seeking her counsel, and memorial services in Sacramento and other cities with large Russian immigrant populations are expected to be attended by 10,000 people.

One of my most pervasive memories of Aunt Vera is laughter.  Despite the hardships of her life Aunt Vera always saw the humor in every situation.  She had an amazingly quick wit, and loved Erma Bombeck, the jokes in Readers Digest, I Love Lucy, Dr. Seuss, and slapstick comedy.  Her wit could be barbed, as she did not hesitate to point out areas where one could improve be it in appearance, weight or life choices.

Her deep Christian faith notwithstanding, she also got a kick out of bawdy and bodily humor .  As we drove down Canon Perdido Street in Santa Barbara on Wednesday making our way from Vera's funeral to the cemetary my mother reminded me that "Perdido" sounds very much like the Russian word for flatulence, and Aunt Vera always made a joke of that when she saw the street sign.

Aunt Vera was 84 when she died and still working several hours each day at the Mission, doing translations, writing poetry, and serving as the full-time caregiver for my Uncle Stach who has both medical issues and dementia.

The night before she died she had chest pains so she got Uncle Stach up and dressed, laid out his medications for several days, and drove herself (with Uncle Stach) to the hosptial, where she was admitted and told that her heart was stressed and she needed to rest.  The next day, my mother's 70th birthday, she went into cardiac arrest and was gone.

Aunt Vera was just one of the strong, capable career women in my family at a time when the typical women's role was much different.  As one of my cousins said at her funeral, growing up we didn't realize that being surrounded by strong, working women was unusual and were surprised that not everyone had mothers and aunts like ours, and I'm sure that has contributed a great deal to who I am today.  

Aunt Vera is also the first of my mother's sisters to die, and my cousins, siblings and I are feeling the sea change that comes with the changing of the generations.

Tyotia Vera, you were an amazing person and role model and I will miss you very much.

 

 

 

Governor's Budget Proposal - One More Unintended Consequence

Thanks to everyone who reposted and gave feedback on my post about the Governor's budget.  It has become by far my most read blog post ever!

I wanted to point out that there is one more potential consequence to what Governor Brown has proposed.

The California State Library receives Federal funds via the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and in turn redirects those funds to local libraries and library organizations via grants.  The Eureka Leadership Program that I have blogged about before?  Funded by LSTA.  Infopeople, which provides low cost training to the staff of California libraries?  Funded by LSTA.  Califa, which among other functions negotiates purchasing discounts for California libraries and supports projects using emerging technologies?  Funded by LSTA.  PVLD's grant-funded access to the Brainfuse live homework help service and the Career Transitions job search online resource?  Funded by LSTA.

So...what does the State budget have to do with these Federal funds?  It's simple.  States only get access to LSTA funds if they provide a certain level of State support for public libraries.  Eliminate all State funding for local public libraries?  Put our LSTA funds at risk.

Unintended consequences...they'll bite you every time.

 

The Governor's Budget Proposal - What It Means for California Libraries

With the release of Governor Jerry Brown's budget proposal on Monday I have had a number of questions about the impact on PVLD and on public libraries in California.

The budget proposal eliminates, with some very minor exceptions, all General Fund funding for public libraries.  The California State Library will continue to be funded at a reduced level in order to continue its mission of preserving California's history and cultural heritage, but with very limited exceptions State funding for local library services is eliminated.

Local public libraries may receive State Funds through several legislative channels, and each has a slightly different impact.

Public Library Foundation (PLF)

PLF provides a very small amount of per capita funding (in recent years it has been in the neighborhood of $0.30 per resident per year, down over 75% since its peak a decade or so ago) for library services to every local jurisdiction that meets a threshold level of local matching funding for its libraries.

PVLD receives approximately $25,000 in PLF funds.  For us the loss of the funds will certainly have a meaningful impact, especially in the face of falling property tax revenues, but in the scope of a $6.5 million budget the impact is fairly small.

PLF is more meaningful for many City and County libraries because it represents a source of funding that must be spent on library services and cannot be redirected.  In difficult budget times such as these a number of jurisdictions rely on entirely on PLF to fund their purchases of library materials. For these libraries the impact on the communities they serve will be significant.

California Library Services Act (CLSA)

CLSA was enacted many years ago to foster inter-library cooperation and resource sharing.  The Act provides funds several important programs that benefit local communities.

Transaction-Based Reimbursement (TBR) reimburses public libraries for a small portion of the costs of providing services to non-residents from other California communities.  TBR has two components - reimbursement of some of the costs of providing materials to patrons of other libraries via Inter-Library Loan and reimbursement for some of the costs of providing "over the counter" services to non-residents who make use of a library other than in the community where they live.

PVLD is expected to receive approximately $40,000 in TBR funds this fiscal year.  As with PLF the loss of this funding will have a meaningful impact, but it is relatively small in the context of the overall budget.

Because of the way it is structured the loss of TBR will have a disproportionate impact on libraries whose collections make them more likely to be a "net lender" of Inter-Library Loan materials (for example the Los Angeles Public Library with its research collections) or whose locations give rise to more use by non-residents.

One of the risks with the elimination of the TBR funding is that local jurisdictions will be more reluctant to serve non-residents and we may see introduction of non-resident fees or simply denial of service to non-residents.  While on the one hand this may seem like a good thing for residents of communities like Palos Verdes who enjoy top-level library services and may not want to share them, the downside is that it could also prevent the many PV community members who currently are able to use other libraries in the South Bay when convenient or who work downtown and make use of the central Los Angeles Public Library from doing so.

CSLA also provides funding for Cooperative Library Systems such as the Southern California Library Cooperative (SCLC) of which PVLD is a member.  Under CSLA the cooperative library systems receive dedicated funding support the cost of providing communications and delivery systems that enable the sharing of resources through interlibrary loans and the rapid interchange of information by telephone, fax, U.S. Mail, courier services, and van deliveries.  In recent fiscal years, over 1.7 million messages and nearly 8.6 million items have been delivered between California libraries with the support of this program.  

PVLD patrons directly benefit from the SCLC delivery service when they order an item from another SCLC library and it is delivered to our library within a few days.

CLSA also provides funding for the cooperative library systems to provide what is known as "second level reference" to member libraries.  PVLD patrons benefit because the SCLC reference center, housed at the Los Angeles Public Library, is a resource for PVLD librarians to respond to highly specialized reference questions; get access to the information in costly and specialized databases that would be unaffordable for us to access directly; and get access to special collections not accessible via traditional Inter-Library Loan such as the Los Angeles Public Library's collection of sheet music.    

Apart from the delivery and reference services provided by the cooperative library systems, they provide an important mechanism for networking and collaboration between libraries.  In the case of SCLC this includes supporting committees and interest groups to discuss topics of common interest (e.g. technology, children's services, etc.) providing training, and facilitating joint grant applications that benefit all member libraries (this year PVLD is benefitting from a system-wide grant that is funding a job-search online service for all member libraries).

The loss of CLSA funding puts the future of the cooperative library systems at risk, and the resulting loss of delivery and reference services, training, and opportunities for collaboration would have a direct impact on PVLD's services to our patrons.

California Library Literacy and English Acquisition Services Program

This program provides a miniscule amount of funding to support English-language literacy programs in public libraries.  The name of the program is somewhat misleading as it seems to indicate that this is an English as a Second Language (ESL) program when in fact it is for developing English-language literacy skills and the primary beneficiaries are native English speakers who have been failed by the formal education system. 

The actual literacy training is nearly always delivered by volunteers.  Libraries who receive funds under this program typically use them to support a paid program administrator and/or for the purchase of materials such as workbooks.

PVLD does not receive funding under this program, but for those communities that struggle with educational achievement the programs supported by these funds are tremendously important.

In summary, public libraries across the State were braced for significant funding cuts.  I don't think anyone expected that libraries would be exempt from the cuts that are being made across all categories of the State budget.  That said, the total elimination of ALL State support for local library services is a shock.

In terms of direct budget impact on local jurisdictions, for many of us it is not huge....but the possible unintended consequences might be.  If the end result is the dismantling of the systems that enable library jurisdictions to share resources and take advantage of economies of scale (such as through the inter-library delivery program) or allow residents of our communities to make use of libraries that are most convenient to their work or school then the loss will be far beyond the $30.4 million that is being cut from the budget.

We'll be watching the budget process closely and I'll use this blog for updates as appropriate

 

 

Censoring Huck Finn

There has been plenty of press about the new expurgated edition of Huckleberry Finn, which replaces the word "nigger" (used over 200 times throughout the book) with the word "slave".  Most of the commentary has repeated the usual objections to this type of censorship - about the dangers of tinkering with the author's intent, about the lack of authenticity that results when language that is very much of its time and place is subject to the different standards of a different era, etc.  An editorial by James Taranto in yesterday's Wall Street Journal also pointed out the obvious fact that the words nigger and slave are not, in fact, interchangeable.  

It took Steven Colbert, however, to point out that the censorship just may not have gone far enough!

 

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Huckleberry Finn Censorship
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog March to Keep Fear Alive

Thanks to Michael at the Travelin' Librarian for sharing!

Are libraries screwed?

Pardon the slightly rude title for this post, but it's a take on an incredibly thought-provoking presentation that Eli Neiburger of the Ann Arbor District Library (a library district that I look to as one of the thought- and service-leaders) gave to a virtual conference called "ebooks:  Libraries at the Tipping Point" back in September and shared by Eric Hellman on his always thoughtful Go To Hellman blog.  I was not able to participate in the conference, and Eric's post was the first time I was exposed to Eli's presentation.

The presentation can be viewed as two YouTube videos below, and I strongly encourage readers to take twenty minutes to view both parts. 

In the first video he compares the technology of what he terms the "codex" (the physically-contained content the collection, organization, and dissemination of which has been the library's core function) to several other outmoded technologies including vinyl records, 8-track tapes, candles, and gaslamps.  The analogy to candles was particularly apt given last week's Los Angeles Times article about new forms for the physical book, most of which reminded me of Eli's description of the candle as "perfumed, adorned and most useful when the power goes out".

Eli proposes that the age of the physical codex, and along with it the library's role as a circulator of physical objects, is waning.  

I spent part of this morning, prior to viewing these videos, looking at our 2010 library use statistics which show that despite the staff feeling like we were incredibly busy all of the time reflect a  a 6.4% decrease in the number of items circulated when compared to 2009, so it really struck home when I heard Eli say that "the peak of physcial circulation has already occurred" and that the tipping point for libraries as the providers of local copies of universally-available physical items "has already done tipped".

At the same time, I think his proposition that we just might not be totally screwed if we can reinvent and reconfigure ourselves as a local "platform for unique experiences and content" offers a glimpse of a more hopeful future.  I loved his statement that "The 20th century library brought the world to its community, the 21st century library brings its community to the world". 

At PVLD we are already moving in that direction with events such as our annual community art show, which is purposely designed to showcase local artists who might have no other opportunity to exhibit their work; programs like the Malaga Cove Library's local history lecture series, our local history and 40families websites; our online catalog which allows patrons to post and share comments; and librarian Kaitlin Waldron's upcoming project which will involve local teens creating videos about our library.

I'm sure if our talented staff and volunteers put our minds to it we will come up with even more ideas for making the library into the community's central platform for locally created content - the challenge will be letting go of outmoded activities like spending a substantial amount of time maintaining the physical collection so we have the time to build a new model.

But enough from me...watch the presentation (both parts!) and let me know what you think!  Remember to double click on the "play" arrow on the screen to get a full screen version)

 

My Blackberry Is Not Working!

I'm back at work after 10 days off, and still trying to catch up.  Instead of writing something deep and meaningful for the new year I thought I would just share this video that a member of our Friends of the Library Board sent to me this morning (double click on the video to get the full screen view, since it never seems to display right from within the blog)-

 

Happy New Year, and if you got a new technology toy for the holidays I hope yours is working better than Ronnie's!