Canton Public Library Director Robert Simon recently wrote to Governor Jodi Rell and State Legislatures to plead the case against state library budget cuts. Since he so eloquently explained how these cuts could greatly impact local library services, we thought we would share it:
Dear Governor Rell and State Legislators,
I am director of the Canton Public Library, which serves a town of 10,000
residents. I urge you strongly not to enact any of the "suspend funding"
or "reduce funding" items specified in the Governor's second budget as they
relate to the state's library system. These cuts will seriously affect
local municipalities and their public libraries.
Public libraries serve everyone. Students of all ages, job seekers,
investors, mothers of small children, retirees seeking new ways to live
productive lives, people lacking computers and Internet at home -- all these
and more come to us for assistance. The public library is a tax-supported
institution that offers direct, personal, face-to-face service to the
citizens of Connecticut municipalities. In the library, they can see their
tax dollars at work. In the library, they can better themselves using the
very tools their tax money has bought.
And Connecticut's citizens are using us: in Canton alone, library usage is
up over 15%. The drastic second-budget cuts proposed by the Governor will
cripple our efforts to serve Connecticut's residents. Libraries are success
stories and definitely are not the place for the state to withhold funding.
Please don't suspend funding to the Cooperating Library Service Units and
the Connecticut Library Consortium! Public libraries like Canton receive
less than ONE PERCENT of the town budget -- our funding is extremely meager.
CLC negotiates for us purchasing discounts for books (46.5%!), DVDs and CDs
and other audiovisual items, information databases, licenses for showing
movies at programs, processing supplies, furniture, and equipment. Library
budgets are tiny and we need the discounts CLC negotiates for us.
Please don't reduce funding for the Interlibrary Loan Service! This means
the Connecticar delivery van service. Libraries cannot possibly own all the
resources their patrons want. Therefore, we have become models of how to
pool resources and make dimes work like dollars -- we share what we have
with sister libraries to help everyone's patrons. The Connecticar van
service is the only method by which we can move our books and AV items
around quickly and at reasonable cost. Without Connecticar, interlibrary
loan and the statewide library card system will grind to a halt. It would
be impossible to do through the US mail what Connecticar does for us -- it
moves 2 million library items annually.
Please don't suspend funding for the statewide digital library -- ICONN!
Most of us have budgets that can ill afford expensive information databases.
Yet our patrons expect and rely on databases to do their research because
database information is usually so up-to-date, comprehensive, and accurate.
ICONN provides each library in Connecticut with a collection of over 30
databases that our patrons may access both in-house and from remote sites --
all for a mere $300/year. 30 million ICONN uses (many thousands of which
are from Canton) show ICONN to be critical to library users. Without ICONN,
we will have virtually nothing to offer in electronic resources. Local
funding would never make up this loss due to high costs of negotiating
individually.
Please don't suspend Connecticard payments! Libraries rely on this money to
help develop and expand our collections which now are used not only by our
own residents but also, in most places, by out-of-town residents. In Canton,
we are heavily used by the citizens of New Hartford, Winsted, and
Torrington. The Connecticard reimbursement is an assist to our materials
budget. 5 million C-card transactions prove that this program, completely
unique in the nation, is popular with state residents and is working. It is
another model of libraries sharing to benefit patrons, and the payment
dollars are important aids to our budgets and our resources. If
Connecticard payments are lost, Canton would suffer a serious blow to its
income -- approximately $14,000 annually.
Please don't suspend state grants to local libraries! These are of the same
importance as are Connecticard payments. Canton receives an annual state
library grant of about $1,700, which is important to us. In our town,
approximately 75% of residents use the library, many with cards but also
some without (using non-checkout services). We provide a useful educational
and social service -- one ever-increasing in demand. The small state aid
grant is a token of appreciation and help from Hartford. Libraries touch so
many lives at such little cost. This state grant, modest as it is, is
important.
Please don't suspend funding for the Statewide Database Program! This means
ReQuest, the 21 million item statewide catalog. ReQuest helps facilitate
resource sharing and interlibrary loan. While Canton belongs to a 30-member
library consortium, not everything our patrons want and need is located
within that network. A statewide catalog is key. Often, we need materials,
ordinary and specialized. that aren't found in our library or any other in
the region. Similarly, we need additional copies of books for our many book
discussion groups. Without ReQuest, we cannot know what is owned by other
libraries in other parts of the state. Our patrons ask us every day, "Does
any other library own it?" Outside of our consortium catalog, ReQuest the
the only way to answer.
Please don't reduce funding to the Department of Information Technology
budget for the Connecticut Education Network! CEN provides every public
library with free local/long distance telecommunications and a free Internet
connection. CEN's gifts power Canton's 15 public-use computer terminals.
We cannot afford to lose this link to resources we use every day to bring
information to our patrons. Either our cash-strapped town would have to
provide the funds to pay for these connections or else our library would
have to do without computers.
Libraries are leaders in cooperation and spending tax money efficiently for
the direct benefit of the citizens of Connecticut. Shouldn't this model be
encouraged and supported?
Public libraries are partners with the school systems in providing
information and learning to students at all levels. The schools receive so
much -- the libraries get so little! To operate effectively, we need each
of the state-assisted programs currently being targeted.
It is simply wrong that the small amount of library funding received from
Hartford should be cut.
We are doing an important job to better the lives of your citizens. Please
help us by not reducing or suspending the funds that help make Connecticut's
library system work so well.
Thank you for your consideration.
Robert Simon
Library Director
Canton Public Library
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