Library Offers ‘SOS’ Buckets in Effort to Keep Doors Open

It’s a form of fund-raising as old as the art itself, but rarely has county government had to rely on passing the hat.

Fresno County library users are being asked to leave their loose change in dozens of cardboard “SOS” buckets at the county’s 33 branches. Patrons came up with the emergency funding plan after county supervisors threatened to close four branches because of state budget cutbacks.

The bright red containers have raised several thousand dollars.

“So many patrons were disturbed by the proposed cuts. This really became a grass-roots groundswell,” said Jane Worsley, a volunteer for Friends of the Library. “It’s one of those things that just bubbled up,”

Library workers say patrons have pitched in with everything from spare change to personal checks.

The county doesn’t plan to get rich off the idea, nor did the change buckets spare the library from a 15 percent reduction in hours, its fifth such cutback since 1979. Officials predicted the library system still will lose $500,000 this year.

“It’s kind of a change thing,” said associate librarian Karen Bosch Cobb. “You don’t raise a lot of money with this, not hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Chief librarian John Kallenberg believes the “SOS” buckets may be unique but said there probably are variations around the state. Libraries have been among the hardest hit services as county officials trimmed spending, he said.

He said the buckets are “certainly going to help,” but special taxes or user fees might be needed if public libraries are to survive the state’s budget woes.

“The prospects for the future are not very good,” Kallenberg said.

Some supporters feel grass-roots fund-raising is bound to play a more crucial role in saving libraries.

Fresno volunteers hold occasional fund-raising dinners amid stacks of books in the library’s main branch. Used book sales and bazaars also have become common and membership in Friends of the Library has increased 20 percent since August.

“I don’t think we’ll ever completely lose our libraries,” Worsley said. “There are always creative ways to save them.”