Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
Are any of the libraries in your area facing cutbacks or closures?
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Discussions of less hours comes up every year (my library is open on Sunday, a rarity as well as every other day--a rarity.) When the budget is done this year, Sunday is expected to go. It was only added as an open half-day perhaps...6 years ago, I think.
The thing is that while we are charged MONTHLY for the library fee--it goes into a general fund. The politicians are not held to making sure that fee goes to the library. It's put in a general fund and then wasted happily on repaving roads that don't need it, but by golly, it was scheduled to be repaved every two years. Or they buy fireworks for 4th and New Years and blow up the money.
Anyway, yes, they are facing some cutbacks. My library does a number of things to raise money; they have yearly things such as spelling bee contests (paid and sponsored for by local businesses). They have reading time for various ages, which brings in a lot of patrons, which means Donations and the possibility that money will be allocated to the library. They apply for numerous grants each year, which is where a lot of the books come from. They are very active with Friends of the Library raising money through sales of books and other fund raisers. They have summer reading that is sponsored by local businesses (prizes given to the kids for each level of "books read" that they reach.) In short, the library is extremely active in the community so it is funded rather better than other libraries.
When it decided to carry ebooks, it joined 2 Austin libraries to save costs. That means it doesn't have many books and the waiting list is *quite* long for books. Overdrive isn't the most generous program either, when it comes to lending.
One of the issues I have is the city council voting to raise the tax paid for libraries and fire (pretty easy to get support) but then using the money for whatever pet project they have (raising their own salaries, adding a council member, or more recently using their power to do back alley deals that got them charged for corruption.)
It's not as easy as saying, "Sure raise taxes for libraries!" And that is true in most counties. If you want to support your library--next time there's something on the ballot about it, find out if the funds HAVE to be spent on the library. If they don't, find some other way to support your library.
So if the council were to even SUGGEST a fee for ebooks, I'd be completely against it. ANY money raised by the library (overdue fees, program fees, and so on) goes into a general fund. The library does NOT get to keep it. So the answer would be NO. With a curse word in front of it.