Speak Up for Libraries in This Hard Fiscal Time

On the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, the public library where I work was surprisingly busy. It seemed that people (especially those with children) got tired of watching the news. They ventured somewhere quiet, somewhere safe and familiar. Californians don’t often get to experience much of an old-fashioned sense of community anymore. California libraries today face severe financial cutbacks because of the current budget crisis. As opposed to school and police department funding, library cuts usually don’t make headlines. Maybe it’s because of the convenience of ordering a book online or visiting a bookstore (with a Starbucks) that public library access seems to rank at the bottom of our priority lists. This may be why California librarians have always had to prove their worth, especially within our schools.

Despite studies that verify a strong correlation between reading scores and the ratio of librarians to students, California’s ratio is the lowest. Nationwide, there is about one school library media specialist to 900 students. California has one school librarian to about 4,500 students.

Despite studies that prove young children need books or magazines around the house in order to be literate later in life, our book-to-student ratio is also one of the lowest. The recommended number of school library books that should be available to each student ranges from 16 to 25. California school libraries have only about 10 books per student.

California’s proposed budget must balance at some point. What little funding libraries began with at the beginning of this year will most certainly be cut. Without a fight now, this funding probably won’t be replaced until 2005 at the earliest.

For many public and school libraries, the struggle to pay qualified staff, to purchase books and to keep their doors open to the public was a harsh reality even before the current state budget fiasco.

Here are some things that you can do to show support for your local public library:

* Visit your local library. Libraries use the statistics of how many people walk through its doors and how many items circulate to justify staffing and purchasing.

* Join a “Friends of the Library” group. Most public libraries have a group of volunteers that help support the library.

* Donate your used books, movies or CDs to the library, or consider buying a magazine subscription for your library.

* Get a local business to lend its support too. Corporate support would not only help the library but the community it serves as well.

Finally, visit www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html to get the address of your legislators and tell them how much California communities need their libraries to stay open and running -- now more than ever.

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Regina Powers is a librarian in Anaheim Hills.