Turn off the lights, the party’s over

Citation

Boese, K.C. (2005), "Turn off the lights, the party’s over", The Bottom Line, Vol. 18 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/bl.2005.17018baf.001

Turn off the lights, the party’s over

Keywords: Public libraries, Library Users, Collections management

It is always disappointing when a long-standing business in a community closes its doors. They are landmarks. They are part of the everyday fabric of what makes a community what it is. However, it is especially somber when the business is a community library.

Often, when a business closes, it is because business has fallen off and customers no longer want or need what is being sold. When it is a public library that is the subject of a closure, again it is usually because demographics have changed in an urban context, and merely a branch needs to close, or be relocated, or consolidated with another location. Here, too, the need for the service is usually studied, analyzed, and vetted prior to such drastic action.

Rarely do we find a case where a library is closed solely as a result of a shortage of revenue, but that is exactly what happened recently in Salinas, California. The news first came to my attention in The Washington Post on January 2 (Argetsinger and Edds, 2005). Apparently, facing a $9 million budget shortfall, Selinas failed to obtain the votes needed to institute a half-cent sales tax increase and a new tax on the city’s largest businesses that would have permitted the libraries to continue in some fashion. As a result, 33 librarians will be laid off, and three libraries closed indefinitely.

According to the Salina’s Public Library web site (www.salinas.lib.ca.us/library_news.html), the closings are on the following time table:More information can be found at the Friends of the Salinas Public Library Web site (www.fospl.org/index.htm), which has been updated regularly and is documenting and providing links to relevant information on the struggle to forestall the closing of these libraries. But, no matter how you look at it, the battle is all uphill.

From examining all of these sources, according to Salinas Mayor Anna Caballero, a minimum of $500,000 is needed just to keep these three libraries open for one day a week. As of February 7, 2005, arriving donations amounted to only $37,420. Far short of the $500,000 needed. Still, it is impressive that many of these donations are coming from outside the Salinas community.

One of the reasons cited for the failure of the sales tax initiative, according to The Washington Post (2005) is a sense that voters felt that the libraries were crying wolf, and a disbelief that the libraries would actually close. In fact, no one seems to have wanted the libraries to close. If sources are correct, Mayor Caballero did not want to close the libraries, choosing instead to cut other civic services and departments prior to the drastic action with the libraries. The community did not want the library to close, many users being from lower income families that heavily rely on library services. Even the American Library Association adopted a resolution opposing the closure of the libraries. So what when wrong?

It would be a safe bet that communication would be among the chief culprits in the closings. This is not because library and civic leaders were not vocal in their pleas to the community. But the messages they were sending may have been partially drowned out by the greater financial woes of both Salinas and California, in general. Both are facing crippling deficits … and in this, Salinas is not alone. Many California communities are having to take a hard look at their finances these days. Another miscommunication may be in unintentional messages that the city and libraries are sending.

Upon reading the initial article to this situation, the first thing that came to my mind was that, due to the budget shortfall, 33 librarians would be laid off, and three libraries closed. To my eyes, this sounds like an all or nothing scenario. Furthermore, the mayor states that $500,000 is needed to keep the three libraries open one day a week. Again, an all or nothing deal. It seems to me that there must be something in the middle … and if there is, that approach could have been used to help rally support.

I admit that closing one branch over another is not ideal, but having one library open in a community seems to be a better alternative than having none available. Other civic services and departments had been cut prior to the measure to close the libraries. It was a noble effort attempting to maintain full library service, but the gamble failed, and now temporary closure is eminent. I can’t help but ask myself if the tax increase would have had a better chance of voter approval if Salinas officials had already closed one or two libraries – rather than all three – and reduced staff accordingly. The gravity of the financial forecast would have been more apparent, and while greatly inconvenienced, the community would not lose all library service in these dire times. Likewise, is $500,000 really needed to resume some type of library service? If $167,000 is raised, can one library open one day a week?

However one examines it, attempting to second guess how Salinas got in this situation is irrelevant. The fact is they are there. But this opens up a whole new slew of questions and possible problems. In the short term, it will save the city salary and some operational costs. But what of the long term? Long-term issues of staffing, maintenance, and collections need to be determined to make sure that the city is not being penny wise, but dollar foolish.

Staffing

It is a safe bet that the 33 librarians laid off, if even for a short period, will not all come back to the libraries if/when they are called. Those that do come back, may want to negotiate their salaries, and if the salaries are too low, the professionals that the city can afford may not have as much experience – in both librarianship and the needs of the Salinas community – to be as successful as their predecessors were.

Maintenance

Just because a building is not occupied, doesn’t mean that it can ignore basic maintenance, such as cleaning, heating, cooling, and repair. Occupied buildings generally fare better than vacant buildings, as problems are noticed sooner, and tended to when discovered. Computer equipment and software also needs to be maintained and in good working order.

Collections

The first issue here goes hand in hand with maintenance. Even if the building is not occupied, to properly care for a collection’s longevity, proper temperature, humidity, and light levels need to be maintained. Additionally, a plan needs to be put in place to build the collection during the period of closure to insure that it is current and useful when the library reopens to the public.The situation in Salinas is an undeniable alarum of what can happen to any community library system when the economy sours and funds are scarce. It is also a call to prepare for such days with various scenarios to see which, if any, will affect library users the least, or at least with a minimal interruption in service. That said, perhaps the most positive message found in the Salinas closings is just how much support for libraries there is out there. Nobody wanted the libraries to close, both within and without the community. Donations came from both spheres. The real trick, then, is to discover how to tap into that support, and turn it into the dollars that keep the doors open.

Kent C. BoeseArts Cataloger, Cataloging Services Department, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, DC, USA