PVLD Director's Blog

Child of the Library

Love the sentiment!

 (I'm still having trouble getting videos to show fully on the screen, so you can click here for the correctly sized version)

Private libraries in India - lessons for public libraries in the US?

A couple of years ago Joan Frye Williams and George Needham did an April Fools Podcast about a mythical commercial library that they allegedly encountered on a road trip. 

Turns out that in India that idea isn't so far-fetched according to this post on Bangalore's Citizen Matters blog describing how Indian entrepreneurs have responded to the fact that India's public libraries fall short of their U.S. counterparts with regard to what we would consider basic services - from up-to-date collections to welcoming spaces to story times...by creating for-profit libraries that offer these things and more.

Looking at the websites for some of the libraries profiled in the Citizen Matters post I was surprised by the ingenuity of the business models. 

Eloor, which was founded over 30 years ago and has five branches across India, is at this point a strictly physical library although it plans to offer an online catalog and Internet-based services soon. Members pay a deposit plus a "reading fee" of 10% of the purchase price of the book (or more if the book is kept more than the 14 day loan period).  The reading fee is the library's source of revenue, while the deposit is to ensure that books are returned and is refunded in full if the membership is closed.  The amount of the deposit determines how many items the customer is allowed to check out at any given time.  People who choose not to become members can borrow books without paying the deposit, but they have to deposit the full purchase price of the book which seems to be refunded (less the reading fee) when the book is returned.

Mylib.in  is a hybrid physical and online library offering both a reading room (I loved the description from their website - "a comfortable reading space surrounded by books which gives the age old charm of "Reading in a Library". We feel great when families spend their weekend afternoon in our library or when school kids drop by after their school or when executives laze around in the bean bags after their office hours to catch up on the business magazines.") and an online catalog of items that can eithre be picked up at the library or delivered to (and collected from) home or office within 2 days.  Much like Netflix, Mylib.in offers a variety of pricing plans to meet different needs from "pay per book" to various combinations of membership terms (3 month, six month, etc.) and number of items that can be checked out simultaneously.

"Easy Library" seems fairly similar to Mylib.in with regard to how it operates (combination of physical space and online/delivery) but with a fee structure more like Eloor's.  Easy Library also offers events like story times for kids and author talks.

Then there is Just Books - similar to Easy Library and Mylibrary.in with regard to services but a franchise business model with 13 locations across Bangalore and opportunities to open franchises in other cities.

Private "children's libraries" are a niche in their own right, with libraries such as Out of the Box and Discover Kids Library offering physical libraries, collections of books, magazines, puzzles, and toys, reading enrichment, outreach to schools, and other services typical of an American public library's Children's Services department.

Browsing all of these websites really made me think about both our public library services and our funding models here in the U.S.  While I firmly believe in the value of libraries as a public institution, I think we could learn from what is happening in India.  Could we too offer Netflix-style home delivery if people were willing to pay for it?  Is a pay-per-use model really so bad?  What about charging extra for value-added or priority service? 

Some of these are ideas we've tossed around here at PVLD, but learning about India's private libraries made me realize that they are not just concepts, they are viable business and service models.  Definitely food for thought!

 

Telling our stories

There is a seemingly endless stream of alerts about proposed cuts to library funding (whether local, state or federal) flowing across Library Association email lists, Facebook pages, and Twitter feeds...and each new alert accompanied by a plea to contact legislators and tell them how wonderful libraries are and why it is a mistake to cut our funding.

In that context I found this blog post by Nancy Dowd on her "M Word" blog particularly compelling. 

As she so rightly points out, the people whose support we need to enlist are our community members...and many of them are facing serious fiscal crises of their own.  When families are facing pay cuts, layoffs, increased healthcare costs, and in some places tax hikes they truly do need to be convinced that the "sacrifice of having to pay taxes to support my library is worth it to my family if you want my support."

As Nancy so eloquently points out, this means telling the stories about the real difference we make in people's lives...not spouting platitudes or reeling off statistics.

This was brought home to me again at an excellent fundraising leadership development workshop (part of the Annenberg Foundation's Alchemy program) that I had the privilege of attending as part of a team from the Peninsula Friends of the Library this week.  We spent some time at the workshop trying to hone our 3-5 minute "pitch" about why a donor should give to the Friends.  We were with a couple of dozen other non-profits, and it was clear that the most compelling pitches were those that conveyed how the organization transformed lives.

This is an area where most libraries, and I count PVLD among them, really could do better.  We need to talk about the seriously ill woman who is so grateful to one of our librarians for the help she has gotten in researching her condition that she has sent not one but two bouquets of flowers over the past months; about the people who use our computers to write their resumes and send in online job applications because it is the only computer access they have; about the child transformed from reluctant to avid reader thanks to the patience of the childrens' librarians who worked hard to find him a book that captured his imagination.

Even better we need to get those people whose lives we have transformed to tell their own stories - loudly and publicly!

Definitely something I am going to think about as part of the ongoing Alchemy process and our library marketing efforts.

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

 

 

More on libraries and local economies

I had a few spare minutes today so I went trolling through some of the stuff I had saved in Google Reader for future reference and found this post on libraries and local economies by Kate on the Loose Cannon Librarian blog. 

The post references a great article from Time Magazine about how buying local benefits local communities, and articulates better than I did why it is in libraries' self-interest to promote strong local economies -

"Libraries are non-profit organizations that are committed to building a strong community- and while supporting a thriving local economy hasn’t necessarily been a main goal of ours- why shouldn’t it be? If the local economy supports the tax base that in turn funds us, why shouldn’t supporting local business be a main goal of the public library?"

Unlike many libraries, PVLD actually doesn't receive any funding that is directly sales or business-tax related (apart from the 1% of our budget that comes from the State our tax funding comes entirely from local property taxes), but the principle is the same.  A healthy local economy is part of what makes a community attractive and vibrant, and that in turn drives property values and our property tax revenue higher.

In her post Kate proposes that libraries take the lead in forming Local First or similar organizations in their communities.  I'm not sure that is the best solution in every community (in our case it is the Chamber of Commerce that is leading our Local First efforts, with the library as an active supporter), but there are plenty of other things that libraries can do to support and promote local businesses and, as I noted in my earlier post, support the quality of life that also contributes to a healthy local economy.

I loved Kate's conclusion, though -

It’s time that we took a step beyond the community bulletin board and began being the true heart of the community- the one that pumps the blood throughout and ensures a long and prosperous life for those we serve.

Amen!

Tough times and the future of libraries

A couple of days ago Eric Hellman had a great post on his Go to Hellman blog about how the huge financial challenges being faced by public libraries across the country (check out the very scary list of library budget cuts at the end of the post), and the way that libraries respond to them, may be compromising our ability to make the changes necessary to survive and thrive in a future where the way that people interact with books and information is fundamentally changing.

I love his comment that

"The public library of the future has to stop being about collections and start being about helping people and communities. Google can't be a physical place where people offer access, assistance and education for the internet and the information it accesses; local public libraries CAN be.   It's these "new" directions that will attract renewed public support and funding into the future. But library directors struggling to deal with budget cuts will find it hard to also reposition their services to meet the needs of an increasingly internet-based society."

Hellman is particularly concerned about the impact of cutting library hours, noting that

"One argument for cutting hours might be that the visibility of these cuts makes it easier to restore funding when the economic cycle turns. This may have been true in the past, but I think that the funding that goes away this year will never come back. The way most people access information has changed profoundly since the last economic downturn. A library that reduces its hours is just training its public to meet information needs elsewhere, and that public isn't going to rush back. The library's funding will get cut again and again, and eventually it will have to close its doors." (emphasis mine)

Here at PVLD as we wrestle with a budget outlook that remains gloomy and the ongoing need to make difficult choices about how we spend our time and our money, and as we work with the Peninsula Friends of the Library to grow community support (including financial support) for the library, I found this blog post a timely reminder that the models of the past may not work for the future.

  

It's about the people

A couple of weeks ago I was at a meeting of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District's Community Arts Committee, a group of arts teachers, school administrators, and community partners that meets periodically to discuss how to improve arts education in the school district.

One of the teachers said something that really struck a chord with me.  I don't remember his exact words, but they were something along the lines of "It's not the art project you made in 6th grade that you remember years later, it's the teacher whose skill and passion turned you on to art."  In short, it's about the people not the art.

Ever since I've been thinking about how that might just as well be said of school librarians.  Forty years ago when I was a shy kid in elementary school my elementary school librarian, Charlotte DeFirmian, was my hero.

 Mrs. DeFirmian introduced me to authors who became lifelong favorites, challenged me to read beyond my comfort zone, and by appointing me an unoffical library assistant made the library a refuge from tormenting peers and a troubling family situation.  In fact, Mrs. DeFirmian is probably the reason I am a librarian today.

We live in an era when California ranks near the bottom of the nation in funding for school libraries, when at the elementary and middle school levels most libraries are staffed by low-paid clerical employees who may or may not have the knowledge of children's literature and talent and skill for connecting kids with books that Mrs. DeFirmian had, and when many school are closing their school libraries or relying on volunteers to keep them open.  

It seems to me that we are at at the bottom of a downward spiral that started when we downgraded the school librarian from someone with the skill and training  to really engage kids with reading to a clerical or volunteer position focused on checking the books in and out...and that what the schools have saved in staffing costs has been more than offset in the loss to students.   It's not about the books, it's about the people...and I hope our schools will come to realize this.

Money, Money, Money

It's been longer than usual since my last post, mostly because we have been busy dealing with the fallout from the California budget - which includes the State "borrowing" 8% or more of PVLD's property tax revenue.  Since property taxes make up about 87% of our revenue, that's a big hit, and there is no expectation that we will be repaid before June of 2013. That's why my thoughts and energies have been focused on the budgeting rather than blogging.

PVLD has already felt the effect of the economic downturn and lower assessed property values which meant we've already had to overcome an $800,000 budget shortfall (12% of our total budget) for the current fiscal year by trimming library open hours, reducing our purchases of books and other materials for the library collection, eliminating our security guard service, and making cuts in every other budget category.  We've also increased fees for meeting room rentals, overdue items, and movie rentals; added new fees; and expanded our Passport Service in order to bring in more revenue...so finding another $450,000 or more is no easy task.

The good news is that we started really tightening our belt in early 2009 when it became apparent that the State would likely borrow local property tax revenues to solve their own budget problem.  As a result, we ended the 2008/2009 fiscal year with a surplus, and are starting this fiscal year with more money "in the bank" than we had anticipated.  This came as a  surprise, as we thought the budget variances we were seeing during the spring were due to the timing of invoices but they turned out to be real.  Great work by the staff!

The staff has also scoured the budget for further cost savings and have managed to squeeze another $220,000 or so out of the budget through rebidding service contracts, energy management to reduce utilities costs, lower Workers Compensation and general liability insurance premiums, some organizational changes resulting in lower personnel costs, and plain old reduced spending in a number of areas. Again great work by all concerned!

The net result is that we will have a budget deficit this year, but we have sufficient money in our reserves to cover it...albeit with some cash flow challenges.  We are also projecting a budget deficit for next fiscal year, but that assumes we reverse some of the budget cuts from this year.  If we can hold the line on all of those cuts and possibly find some additional revenue sources (we're working hard on that!) we should come close to a balanced budget as long as property values don't drop more than expected.

It's going to be a tough few years though, with revenues projected to grow at no more than 1-2%/year, the spectre of inflation, and a labor contract that seemed very conservative a year ago but has "salaries and related" expenses rising at a significantly greater rate than our revenues.

We'll be paying close attention to every expenditure, thinking "outside the box" about how to generate more revenue, being very cautious about adding new programs given our limited staff and financial resources, and supporting the Friends of the Library in their efforts to expand their fundraising. 

Given what I've seen our staff achieve as we've navigated through the rough budget waters of the past few months, though, I think we'll actually come out the other side of this crisis in good shape, and maybe even stronger than we were....and I don't think that is just wishful thinking!

Trading off instead of trading up

One of the challenges we've been facing here at PVLD is the conflict between growing workloads and shrinking resources.  Some of the workload growth is beyond our control - like the recession-driven increases in library usage.  Some is a result of having an energetic, enthusiastic, and ambitious staff who take the initiative to develop new programs and services.  Some is the result of the fact that scarce resources  can actually create work - for example, in times of healthy budgets for books you can pretty much order anything that sounds reasonable without a lot of thought or analysis, but when money is tight you need to spend more time and effort ensuring that every purchase decision delivers optimum value.

In any case, it is becoming increasingly obvious that we can't continue to do everything with our available staff and resources!  This is forcing some tough decisions about what we need to give up, decisions made tougher because the staff are so passionate about what they do and so reluctant to ratchet back services to the community.

That's why I thought this line from the It's All Good Blog was so apt -

People are thinking differently about their choices today--no longer trading up but trading off.

That's a great description of the kinds of choices we are being forced to make right now - at the library but also in our personal lives. 

It's been a while since we've had to ask "If I do this, what else can't I do?" and here at PVLD we're finding it pretty difficult. 

We'd love some feedback about what is really important to you as a library user, so as we make these choices it's with your interests in mind....just leave a comment on this blog!