Libraries, Society’s Jewels, Merit More Public Funding

As far back as ancient times, historian Lewis Mumford tells us, people in cities chose to remember through archives and library collections. From this perspective, libraries represent an act of memory as old as the city itself. The poet John Donne once wrote that love “makes one little room an everywhere.” In similar fashion, each public library makes its city or town or suburb, no matter how small, an “everywhere.” If we had only our local library collection, we could reconstruct the long and arduous struggle for meaning and the celebration of life that have constituted the human journey. Libraries, then, are civilizations made accessible.

Whether it be a children’s collection, an archival collection, printed books, periodicals or the Internet, the library brings to the user the tools through which he or she can navigate a world of information.

Libraries, finally, are government agencies, among the most efficient. They make up a small percentage of a government’s total budget but yield -- so surveys have shown -- the highest levels of taxpayer satisfaction.

In 2000, California voters passed Proposition 14, authorizing $350 million for library construction. Because the measure’s provisions leveraged an additional $150 million from the state (the state providing two-thirds, the local community one-third), the total fund came to half a billion dollars, the single-largest public library construction program in U.S. history. In short, even during economic hard times, Californians still believed that public libraries were crucial to their communities.

On Sept. 14, San Diego County will dedicate the first library to be constructed with these funds -- the Julian Library. It came in on time and on budget, the first of more than 30 libraries scheduled to be built over the next decade.

During my 10 years as state librarian, I had the responsibility of promoting the passage of Proposition 14 and, once it was passed, organizing and implementing the grant program. As generous as the half-billion-dollar fund was, it represented a mere quarter of the actual construction needs of the state. This fall, the third cycle of grants will be awarded. Unfortunately, there is slightly less than $80 million remaining for nearly $500 million of unmet need.

Survey after survey has revealed that every community in California values its libraries as one of its primary communal assets. Over the last decade, it has been my privilege and pleasure to be present when public libraries were dedicated. The joy, the sheer pleasure -- almost physical in its vibrancy -- of these events spoke to the enduring importance of public libraries as icons of communal identity.

The governor and the Legislature are talking about a new library bond act, one that would address the $500 million in unmet library construction needs. Julian is a small community in rural San Diego County, but it represents a big idea. Large or small, our California communities -- and the libraries that serve them -- represent the full richness and the long and glorious struggle of human achievement. That, truly, is worth supporting with our public money and our loyal assent.