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Each library carries outs its struggle alone.  We view our struggle as if we are each alone.  But each library is not alone.

Part of what I've learned by participating in NYSALB is that the problems libraries face across the state are often similar.  And solutions to those problems can arise if we struggle together, not alone.  So it is with the struggle for funding of the whole library system.

I sit on a local library board and on the system board.  In both, I see that the struggle for money consumes more and more of our time and concerns.  Simply, our experience of the last couple of years has demonstrated the need for a predictable, consistent and reasonable stream of funds for library services.

Every year, we go “hat in hand” to local politicians for a piece of their budgets and to state legislators for the gift of some small “member item”, and then to foundations or friends groups for some money to make up the deficit that government funding leaves.  Putting aside the toll this process takes on library trustees and directors, it is remarkably unreliable.  Some years are okay (at a minimal level of support) and other years, like last year, require a major fight. 

(Moreover, the general the public has no clue what goes on to keep their libraries sufficiently funded so the doors remain open.  That, we have found from most local experience and other sources, like the Zobgy poll, is our secret weapon.  More on that in a bit.)

Every year we go through the valiant struggle because we must.  It reminds me of the old line that you don’t have time to drain the swamp, if you’re up to your backside in alligators.  Understandable as this position is, we all realize that the alligators will pop up until the swamp is drained.  It is time for us to make plans for the long term and put at least some of our effort into realizing those plans.

In my view, the only realistic way to end the annual struggle is a statewide, dedicated fund -- supported in principle by the State constitution, as proposed by NYSALB earlier this year.

As a community of library trustees, we can work out the specifics of such a proposal and determine whether the funds might come from:

Also, an equitable distribution of the money between libraries, systems, etc. will have to be worked out.  While not easy, this will surely be easier than the continuing struggle alone each year.

Come work together with your fellow trustees so that we can determine how we will carry out our common struggle.  A good start is to sign up for NYSALB’s email discussion group by sending an email to join-nysalb@www.watpa.org.

The ideal solution will not happen this year.  But we can no longer put off getting this into motion or it will never happen.  Thank you.

First of all, I wish everyone a very happy holiday season, and a successful year in 2004.

In this issue, you will find contributions from Senator Farley, Assemblywoman Galef, and our own Bill Taber, as well as comments from President Jacknis.  I’m also pleased that we have a letter from Susan Keitel, retiring Executive Director of NYLA.  Thanks to Valerie Chevrette at the State Library, we have an article by Peggy Buckley giving some coverage of the final New Century Libraries Leadership Meeting held December 1 at the Mount St. Alphonsus Retreat Center in Esopus.

Library advocacy is an important item on the schedule of any trustee – both at the local and state level.  Put March 16, 2004 on your calendars for Lobbying Day in Albany.  For more details, point your internet browser to http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=148.

And while you have your calendars open, mark April 30 and May 1 for the annual Trustee Institute, scheduled this year for Albany.  I believe you will find the Friday evening and Saturday morning sessions timely and interesting.

One of the ideas being advocated this year is encouraging libraries to change from free association libraries to another type, such as special district, 414-a, etc.  For a look at more of the details, point your browser to the NYLA site: http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=4 and then click on the item “NYLA's Legal Beagles: Public Library Districts” to download an article on rechartering.  The article is titled “INCREASING AUTONOMY: Rechartering Your Public Library, by Ellen M. Bach, et al.

Each library has unique circumstances that may make this idea more or less desirable, but you should keep informed about what the process is.

And, I seem to have stirred up a few folks by my comments about the oldest libraries in the state.  I have tried to give more details in the “Library Circuit” with thanks to Charles Young of Oswego, and Robert C. Hughes of Huntington.

Finally I have to thank NYSALB Trustee Ed Fields for his dedication to and interest in our newsletter, and his help in getting me started.  We will miss his special touch.

Last year was both exciting and challenging for all of us who care about libraries. We coalesced, we mobilized, and we got library funding restored to the state budget over the veto of the Governor.  I expect this upcoming year to be a repeat of the last.  In 2003 New York State had to deal with an $11 billion deficit.  In 2004 we expect a $5-$6 billion deficit.  This time we are out of easy answers.  There will be no more quick fixes via one time infusions of funds.  Expect an austere state budget with the potential of library cuts on the table.

Once again, we need to raise awareness of the public and elected officials on the wonderful library programs that support our communities and show what an important resource they are especially for young families with children, the elderly, and the disabled.  It's time to contact your elected state representative, and the Governor, and invite them to your library.  Show them NOVEL, ask them to read to kids, tell them about the services that are well received by the community.  Get them to know you and your library.

Start writing those letters, paying visits to the district offices and come on up to Albany to meet and mix with those who have a very real impact on the future of the programs you value as librarians, trustees, and patrons.

Why not involve youngsters as part of you efforts?  Kids are a great way to communicate your needs and provide perfect photo opportunities for local and statewide publications.  Take a picture with your state elected officials, write a news release, send both to your local newspaper.  The grassroots effort by libraries must grow so everyone understands just how untenable it is to cut back on services to the community.

And don't forget those thank you letters and phone calls that meant so much to legislators who took a stand and voted for libraries.  It was appreciated and makes a difference.  I look forward to working with you as we meet the challenges ahead.  Please do call me with any questions, concerns, or support as we begin anew to fight for libraries in the upcoming 2004 budget process.

Executive Budget Starts Library Funding Discussions

January includes the starting points for legislative discussion of library topics:  the Governor’s State-of-the State address and his submission of the Executive Budget.

The Executive Budget is due by the third week of January.  The Budget itself, with its consolidated approach and hierarchical development, is a creation of the “economy and efficiency” movement of the first third of the twentieth century.  Initially envisioned by Governor Charles Evans Hughes in 1909, the idea was championed by Governor Alfred E. Smith, and became law through a 1927 amendment to the State Constitution.  Prior to the Executive Budget, each agency submitted budget requests directly to the Legislature, a process which, ironically, was criticized as placing too much power in the hands of a few Legislators.

Today’s budget development process involves a classic feedback loop, starting with agency budget preparation, proceeding to Division of the Budget (DOB) review, the Governor’s decisions, legislative action, and, finally, agency implementation leading to preparation for the next year.

It is no surprise that the 2004-05 Budget will require the same balancing acts which occur each year.  There will be discussions among reasonable persons both about the size of the Budget “pie” and about how it is to be sliced.

Broad-based taxes (personal income, sales, etc.) are not likely to be again increased in 2004-05.  Library supporters who look toward the revenue side will need to get the creativity juices flowing.  To my surprise, funding the State Library through surcharges on records filings seems to be working.    Nonetheless, I still feel that libraries are a core service of government, and that adequate provision should be made for their funding through general fund revenues.

This is where “slicing the pie” comes in.  Increases in dollar spending (total State spending has nearly doubled over the past fifteen years) have masked significant changes in the purposes for which State taxpayers’ dollars are spent.  In 1989-90, spending was about evenly divided among social services (27.9%), education (26.2%), and state operations (27.4%), with everything else accounting for 18.5%.  By 2002-03, social services spending had nearly tripled in dollar amount, and was squeezing out other public services.  That year, social services accounted for 40.2% of the budget pie, while education was down to 24.5%, state operations had fallen a third to 20.8%, and everything else accounted for 14.5%.

For 2004-05 there will be new pressures on the already diminished “education” slice of the budget pie.  Facing a court order to increase State spending on New York City schools, we will have to decide whether to take the money for this away from upstate schools, away from other education functions (such as libraries), or away from somebody else, such as the folks in nursing homes whose costs are driving up the “social services” slice.  Or, maybe my “no new taxes” prediction will prove wrong.

At any rate, libraries can and should, play to their strengths.  First, libraries are a core function of government in a civilized society.  Second, libraries are the source of education for everybody who is not in school, and for many people who are in school.  If my proposal to make public library services a constitutional right had been adopted, the courts might well be requiring increased spending on library services as well as on schools.  But, I digress.  And, it is a critical but little-heralded fact that much State funding for libraries leverages efficiency in the use of local support.  Library systems typically undertake joint functions, such as acquisitions and processing, which use volume buying to reduce individual costs.  NOVEL’s group purchasing of databases is a dramatic example of the benefits of volume discounts.

As January starts a new year, it starts another cycle of opportunity for our libraries and library systems.

Flexibility is a virtue, because it is flexibility that makes possible (although it does not ensure) our ability to adapt successfully to challenging circumstances, and adaptation is often necessary for our survival.  Our flexibility is a capacity for change; our adaptability is a directing of that capacity toward some end in the face of disruptions.  For public libraries as well as for individuals, the desire for survival raises the question: "survival for what end?", and the need for adaptability as a means to that end raises the question: "what CAN be changed and what should NOT be changed?" when circumstances are abysmal.

Thus, adaptability requires that choices be made about what to keep and what to change or give up.  Adaptability does NOT mean surrender.  Eastern metaphors often refer to the bending of reeds before a storm or to the yielding of water.  In both metaphors, shapes and parts may change, but the core identity survives.  Reeds bend and whip before the wind and waves, but they do not give up their roots, and when the storm passes, they resume their business.  Water yields all its shapes and motions to go above, around, and under obstacles, but, as it evades, it also attacks, pounds, soaks, undermines, dissolves, accumulates, evaporates, recondenses, and erodes.  Ultimately, it not only survives but eventually conquers.

Are there any lessons in these concepts for New York State public libraries?

Circumstances?  Circumstances in New York State are certainly grim enough to qualify as generally challenging.  As I write this, I see the most recent of years of similar newspaper headlines: "Fed Report: Upstate Job Losses Outweigh Gains."  It is just one more item in the continuing documentation of the draining away of this country's huge wealth and resources from most of its population and from grassroots services -- which include public libraries.  If you are old enough to remember, a simple drive around the state -- especially through the villages and many parts of the cities -- reinforces too often this sad commentary.

Flexibility?  Public libraries have a pool of good will and support among the public even during a time when market and political ideologies denigrate public services.  This good will means that public libraries do NOT need to be hide-bound or strictly traditional.  To keep their charters, they must fulfill the state mandates, but to keep to their purpose for being, they have room within most communities to change, to revise, to do things differently, to invent, and to NOT feel constrained.

Adaptation?  There are plenty of specifics to which public libraries must adapt their services: decline of population and business, increasing poverty, less than optimal education levels, limited funding (with once-a-decade partial upgrading of funding ...  a kind of tokenism), an aging local population, significant minorities who have either "opted out" through depression, alcohol, drugs, and loss of will, or who have been sidelined unwillingly by poverty or lack of medical care.  Although such conditions are not universal by any means, they are large enough to affect the nature and future of our communities, and the downward momentum of our economy and culture will continue for a while even if our nation's political trajectory were to change.

Survival for what end?  The good news is that these dreary circumstances themselves call for the survival of public libraries and for library services.  When a society has everything to offer to those who can pay high prices for it and increasingly little to offer to those who don't contribute enough to somebody's profit margin, public libraries are among the vital institutions which try to fill a gap and to keep burning some lights of knowledge and equity during  Dark Ages.  Public libraries do not survive for their own benefit.

What to save and what to give up (if worse comes to worst)?    I suggest that the core definition of the public library is free access to a maximum variety of the very best of intellectual and cultural creations of our times and of human history.  Whichever way we can approach in fact this ideal definition of the library is the way to go.  Anything else is expendable in the service of this goal.  The most destructive problems that libraries face are when funding limitations or public pressures interfere with some aspect of this purpose:

·       For example, can we redefine "free" to "affordable" access --- thereby charging a fee for each loaned item? Experience in other areas, even with necessities such as pharmaceuticals, show that as price goes up, usage goes down especially among the non-wealthy. 

·       Can we redefine "maximum variety" as if it meant "selection from" the cultural products of our civilization? Experience shows that if we accept as a conscious purpose a prearranged "selection" for a specific population (i.e.  the library's patrons), it morphs into an engine to mold people's minds in a selected direction.  (In my former profession, this was always a danger).

·       The same ghosts lie in wait if we choose to water down the "best" to some predefined level of "adequate"; for soon the phrase "adequate for such as they" begins to make sense to somebody.  Ultimately, the "adequate" proves to be very inadequate; for it hampers rather than helps the best of our patrons.  How? By failing to encourage those potentials that were unforeseen by the prearranged definitions of adequacy.

Where then is the room for adaptive change?  It is everywhere; for everything in the library is changeable (location, personnel, media, climate control, type of building, size, etc ...whatever it takes) EXCEPT those core purposes that define the very soul of the library.  If compromises are ever forced in these central aspects, our unflagging reaction must always be that the library is failing its purposes and that it must never stop reaching to re-acquire them.  The only true defeat, the only true failure to successfully adapt would be to surrender those goals themselves.  If they are never allowed to die, they are certain to be reached eventually.

Library and system directors and staff voice frustration that the Annual Report is a waste of valuable staff time. They contend that State Aid to Libraries is insignificant and does not respond to the changes in their local environment. The intent of this article is to change the perception that the Annual Report has no value.

It is true that payments in 2003 to libraries and library systems do not reflect the 2000 Census. As a result, each library serving an increased population did not receive additional State support. The decision to maintain funding at the 2001 level has financial and service implications for all of us.

So, why are Annual Reports important?

The Annual Report is the only report that collects statewide data about library activities, use, revenue and expenditures. Also, each library can transform the Annual Report data into an excellent marketing tool. to demonstrate accountability as well as to support requests to funding sources for increased appropriations. The Report allows comparisons between a library’s current year’s and previous years’ activities. Just a few numbers can have a major impact. The information in the Annual Report makes it possible for libraries to calculate the percent of change for each data and financial element, as well as comparisons to other libraries and library systems

Common sense would argue that increases in population and cost of living would warrant additional funds, just to maintain current level of services. The data available to you make it possible to develop reports that show how your funds are spent, what the cost per capita is for circulation, personnel costs, acquisition of materials, etc. Using a spreadsheet application you can prepare charts that provide a graphical representation of the data.

At the System level, the comprehensive summary of member data provides a view of the diversity among member libraries. It enables policy development and efficient allocation of funds.

The Annual Report is also essential for the State Library. Analyzing the Annual Reports allows the State Library to document the inequities among the libraries of New York State and to use these data to campaign for policies and funding that provides benefits to all libraries and their patrons. In addition to advocacy and public relations uses, the State Library receives requests for information from the Commissioner of Education, the State Legislature, individual libraries and library systems, American Library Association (ALA), New York Library Association (NYLA), the Office of the State Comptroller, Civil Service, U.S. Senators and the press - among others.

Select information from the Annual Report for Public and Association Libraries is extracted and filed with the federal government’s Federal-State Cooperative System (FSCS) for Public Library Data, a program of the National Center for Education Statistics. The FSCS program requires each State to file annual data on public library activity. This information is used to advocate for federal funding to the States, including Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grants. LSTA funds currently support the licensing, by the State Library, of the NOVEL (New York Online Virtual Electronic Library) electronic databases available at your library. These databases provide access to over 2,000 full text periodicals covering a wide-range of subjects, from health to business to current issues.

For free online access to New York’s tremendous warehouse of eleven years of public library data, access to FSCS data from all fifty states and the Public Library Association’s Public Library Data Service (PLDA), visit the New York State Library website at www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/libs.

On the eve of my retirement as the Executive Director of the New York Library Association, I have been given one last opportunity to address the public library trustees of New York State in this newsletter.  How shall I use it?  Of all the things that I might write at this time, what is the one most important thought to leave with you?  If brevity is the soul of wit, what is the soul of wisdom?

Should my final message to you be about the importance of having a healthy, smart board?  Should I reiterate what I have written earlier in this space about the importance of maintaining a board of trustees that works appropriately hard, defining policies, hiring and evaluating a library director, and avoiding the pitfalls of trying to micromanage its library?  A healthy board is usually an excited group in which meeting challenges contains an element of fun and satisfaction.  I wish all library boards great health and fun as they undertake their very serious and important work of bringing their libraries to intellectual and financial strength.

Or should this message be an admonition to trustees to continue to advocate with elected officials on behalf of each library?  Since library funding most often comes from a public purse in which there are never enough coins, trustees are the primary actors in the annual drama of seeking sufficient money.  How can words, my words, convince trustees to lobby daily and weekly during their board tenures?  How can my words inspire the shy, encourage the experienced, and help everyone stay the difficult course of seeking funding?

Should my final message to the State’s trustees be something even more different? Perhaps I ought to speak to all of you about the exciting life you lead as trustees.  Maybe I should admit finally that I have always envied you your work and your closeness to a library.  Caution prevails, and warns me that envy is not a universally respected emotion, and I’d best not admit to it publicly.  But if people only knew how enormously exciting your work can be, there would be dozens of competitors for every available trustee’s position.

When I eventually decide what the most important message is for you, I’ll send a letter to your editor.  Just now, it is impossible to offer you anything other than gratitude for your work, my best wishes for the future of every one of your libraries, and my hope that the members of NYSALB and NYLA remain the best of colleagues.

Last issue, I wrote of being invited to a one hundredth birthday party at the Pleasant Valley Library, and then commented that I had a list showing the oldest library in the state to be Camden in Oneida County (July 7, 1891).  The list was from the Division of Library Development, and was a list, sorted by date, of “Provisional Charter Data from 1891-1903” with a column for Name, Provisional and County.  On that list, Oneida was the oldest.  I have since had lively comments from Charlie Young, a Trustee at Oswego S.D. Public Library, and Robert Hughes of Huntington, Long Island.

Mr. Young’s letter said (in part):

As a historian, I enjoy historic references!

As a Trustee (Oswego S.D. Public Library), I like references to libraries!

As a teacher (retired), I know that answers depend on the question. 

What was the question that elicited the response that "The oldest one on their list is the Camden Library Association"?

I do wish Camden a very "Happy Birthday", but I fear that you have dumped the cards from the library catalogues on the floor (historic reference), and created a mess!

My research indicates that the four oldest public libraries in the state are Troy, Albany, (or Albany, Troy), Poughkeepsie, and Oswego. Poughkeepsie was the first to be chartered in the State, with Oswego as the second with a Charter dated 1854. If we use that date, Oswego will be 150 years old next year, and we will celebrate by launching a capital drive to renovate, and expand our historic structure.

WE claim to be the oldest public library in the state, possibly the Northeast, and even the nation, still operating in our original building which opened in 1857. Money was donated by a leading Abolitionist and Social Reformer, Gerrit Smith, to build and equip our library.  We have been struggling ever since to raise money to keep going, while offering outstanding service to our community.

I trust that you have heard from some of the other libraries in the state. If we do not get this matter straight, I fear that we will have to change the title of your column to "The Library Short-Circuit!"

And Robert Hughes sent me this from Long Island:

As a library trustee and Town Historian, I read with much interest the article in the last issue of “The Library Circuit” concerning the oldest library in New York State, but was surprised that you claim the oldest was started in 1891.  Not to take anything away from that community, here in the Town of Huntington on Long Island we have three libraries that are older.  The Huntington Public Library was founded in 1875; the Cold Spring Harbor Library in 1886 and the Northport Library also in the 1880s.

The entity we now know as the Huntington Library was established as an association library in 1875.  However, library services in Huntington began in 1759 when 39 residents signed a covenant to establish a lending library.  The library fell into disuse during the British Army’s occupation of Huntington during the American Revolution.

Over the course of the next century various efforts were made to revive the library, but none took hold until 1875 when the Huntington Library Association was formed.  The library spent its first 17 years in rented quarters.  Then in 1892 it moved into the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Building, pictured below.

Meanwhile, to the west in Cold Spring Harbor and to the east in Northport libraries were established in the 1880s.  The Cold Spring Harbor Library’s first building was constructed in 1913 and the Northport Library building — a Carnegie library — followed a year later.

The three libraries have moved to larger quarters (Cold Spring Harbor will break ground on a new 26,000 square foot building next spring).  Interestingly, the original buildings of all three are now preserved by local historical organizations.  I have a personal interest in this subject because my office as Town Historian is in the tower room of the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Building.

Mr. Hughes also sent a picture of the Huntington Library, which I would date as from the 1930s through the early 1940s from the cars in the photo.

I certainly don't want to create a “short circuit” of any kind, and don't want to get into a scholarly debate on the antiquity of New York Libraries.  So I suggest a compromise.  Any one wishing to nominate or identify more of the oldest libraries in New York please send me the information and historical references, and I will refer the information to Mr. Hughes and Mr. Young who are both historians.  I look forward to hearing from you.