They Need More Ben Franklins Now

A hand-carved sign here proudly touts Franklin as “home of the first public library.”

But budget worries threaten to close the collection founded more than 200 years ago with a gift from Benjamin Franklin. The crunch is so severe that last week, reference librarian Vicki Buchanio wondered: “How much do you think we could get for that sign on EBay?”

Standing in front of 116 leather-bound volumes donated by the legendary namesake of this suburban industrial community, town administrator Jeffrey Nutting said it pained him to propose shutting a library that opened in 1790.

“My mother was a library trustee,” he said. “She is rolling in her grave.”

Across the country, libraries are experiencing similar pressures. Many small branch libraries have been forced to consolidate. Staff cutbacks and layoffs have been rampant as libraries compete for local funds with services such as police and fire departments.

The library book budget in Oakland is frozen until at least July, leaving young Harry Potter fans -- among other desolate readers -- desperate for the latest installment of their favorite series scheduled for release June 21. At the library in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., every magazine wears a jacket pleading for someone to adopt it or the library will have to drop the publication.

Last summer, the Seattle Public Library closed for two weeks in an effort to cut costs. With California’s projected $35-billion deficit, the Los Angeles County library system may have to close 15 libraries and reduce hours by 50% at those that remain open.

“This is an overwhelming trend, and it is a tragedy,” said Mitchell J. Freedman, president of the American Library Assn. “Not even during the Great Depression did libraries close and decrease hours at the rate they are being forced to do today.”

Like many cities and towns in a cash-strapped state, Franklin is struggling to make fiscal ends meet. Over the last two years this town of 29,500 residents, which lies 22 miles southwest of Boston, has laid off 46 workers, almost a quarter of its municipal workforce.

As it confronts a possible gap next year of $4 million to $6 million, Franklin also might slash firefighting and police jobs. Along with the library -- which would close for the summer under the town administrator’s proposal, and reopen in the fall with drastically reduced hours -- one of the town’s two fire stations might close.

“We have been on an economic downturn for the past several years,” Nutting said. “We are running out of places to cut.”

He admitted that the library “strikes people in a sensitive spot.” But, said Nutting: “I felt I had to at least put the citizens on notice that dramatic reductions may arise.”

Nationwide, cities and towns are facing “a squeeze from many directions,” said Mike Reinemer, spokesman for the National League of Cities in Washington. State budget crises, the downturn in the national economy and in many cases, higher spending on homeland security have combined to pinch town and city spending, Reinemer said.

Small towns have limited revenue resources, he said, and many are barred by civic ordinance from running deficits. A recent study by his organization, which represents 18,000 towns and cities, found that 75% of its member towns and cities were less able to meet municipal needs than the year before. In the same survey in 2002, 55% said they could not make ends meet, Reinemer said.

“Cities and towns are often left holding the bag,” he said. “And most of them say it is going to get worse before it gets better.”

Reinemer said many towns -- including Franklin -- have cut back on library hours. “It’s very, very unfortunate,” he said. “Citizens typically want more services, not fewer. City and town leaders are looking at trying to do more with less, and at some point, things give.”

Library Assn. president Freedman, who also is director of the Westchester County library system in New York, said his operating budget for 2003 is 25% less than last year. He cited the irony that such cuts are coming at a time when libraries such as his are recording heavy use.

“At a time of crisis in the economy, you use libraries more because the products are free,” Freedman said. “If these were private corporations that were doing so much more business and were so much more productive with the same resources, their profits would soar, there would be raises for everyone and everyone would congratulate all the workers for the great jobs they were doing.”

Freedman pointed out that state library funds also are drying up. Only a last-minute rescue by the Legislature saved Florida’s state libraries from being “zeroed out” of the most recent budget, he said. Pennsylvania’s proposed budget calls for a 50% cut in state library funds, he went on.

“The Franklin Library in Massachusetts is just a glaring example of what has been happening around the country -- and what is going to continue happening,” Freedman said.

Modeled after a Greek temple, Franklin’s library sits at the center of a town that prospered thanks to its fortuitous setting between two rivers. Compared to many towns in this area, settlement in Franklin came late -- in 1676, following the conclusion of King Philip’s War. The town eventually established itself as the country’s leading manufacturer of straw bonnets.

In 1778, the community became the first of more than 30 colonial towns to adopt the name of the patriot-ambassador-publisher. To show his appreciation, Franklin sent the town a book collection that included such titles as “The Laws of Massachusetts.”

Franklin said he selected the volumes now housed in an airtight case opposite the library’s circulation desk because they “inculcated the principles of sound religion and just government.” The books formed the nucleus of the town’s lending library.

Franklin (the town) had been hoping for a bell for its new meeting house. But Franklin (the man) declared: “Sense was preferable to sound.”

When the library moved to its pink-granite headquarters across from a small private college, a prominent display area was set aside for the Franklin collection. So many people have borrowed books from the library that foot indentations are palpable in the marble floor.

Four days a week, retired electronics executive Allan Wilbee walks from his home to the library, his literary home-away-from-home. Library membership at first was by subscription, but in 1790, Franklin voters decided to open the books to all residents without charge.

“It feeds my soul,” Wilbee said, adding that before the first round of budget cuts curtailed library hours, he used to come here every day.

“The town is in trouble, no doubt about it,” said Wilbee, an habitue of the Franklin library for his entire 59 years, “But it’s a question of priorities, and the town administrator lists the priority of the library as very low. If it were me, I would spend money here, rather than elsewhere.”

Librarian Vicki Buchanio, presiding over a reference room with soaring ceilings and splendid murals, said the Franklin library is just one more potential victim of deep cuts in local aid by Gov. Mitt Romney, a budget-conscious Republican.

“These cuts are awful, just awful,” Buchanio said.

For his part, Nutting conceded that “to me, a public library is a statement about what a community is about.”