Our county is considering closing four libraries and stopping a book mobile program because of budget cuts. Given the public reaction to that idea, I can only imagine that we'd have riots in the street if they so much as considered anything along the lines of what Ohio is trying. It's too bad that such enriching community centers are often the first under the axe when money gets tight.

Let's see... when people need free education and entertainment the most the government is going to cut it? What?!

Not technically free if you consider you pay taxes. Though free in the sense that people who draw up budgets expect them to be run for free.

You won't know how important they are until they're gone.

My comment on the petition site mentioned(awaiting moderation there):

This is a scam to get you people to agree to tax increases, just like when the local school board threatens after school programs and sports if you don't vote for their tax referendum. Hold strong and read at home for a few months, it wont last. Let them shut down government.

The real problem is entitlement spending, make them deal with it, don't send letters and petitions for your pet program, it only feeds the problem. Don't play along.

"About 70% of public libraries in Ohio are funded solely by this fund ..."

I think I see the problem. Depending on one source for all funding is stupid. They should encourage partnerships with ALL ,and I mean ALL interested parties. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see major governmental funding crises ahead (think-California in all 50 states ) when Social Security and Medicare run out of money.The grizzled old frumps are going to march to the polls and reelect whoever will make sure that they get THEIR check every month,libraries (and schools and roads and bridges) be dammned.

Shitstorm's coming. Better get ready.

Given that funding cuts are coming to all government agencies, at all levels, around the country, due to falling tax revenues; and recovery is not going to be soon ... I suggest that, even if the funding is saved this year, it could be axed in the next, or the one after, etc. In other words, coercing the state of Ohio to keep funding libraries is going to be an arduous, perpetual battle, a kind of rear-guard retreat action, with no hope of any kind of final victory (which would be an iron-clad promise that libraries would be perpetually funded 100% with no cuts).

This means any campaign to maintain these funds should also be supplemented by fundraising to compensate for any loss in funding, once it comes down the pike. Time to set up a private, non-profit "Ohio Library Benefit Fund." Collect charitable donations to make up for government funding losses.

The same principle applies everywhere else, and whatever government spending one holds dear. Don't merely demand that government maintain that funding level ... go out and solicit donations to make up any deficits. Depending on government to fund everyone's wishes is simply not reasonable any more. For better or worse, it's time for people to pitch in and support the things they need ... by donations, if need be.

Let's be honest about it ... if something is enough of a benefit to society that tax money should be spent on it, then doesn't it stand to reason that it could also be supported by private donations? With tax revenues collapsing, governments no longer have unlimited funds at their disposal. Something needs to fill in the gaps, and private largesse is as good as anything else.

I know, it sounds harsh ... but I'm only being realistic. If the goal is to save Ohio's libraries, following only one tactic — coercing government to maintain funding — may not prove to be enough. Multiple strategies are needed.

i think florida went through something similar a few months ago. i don't live there but my friend who is a librarian does and she was telling me that the petition and the repeated constant calls to the representatives worked - they got most of the funding back

Don't cut funding for anything and don't raise taxes. The money has to come from somewhere. I vote for cutting funding.

@PsiCop: Agreed, but it has already happened in some locations. The library I work has had all but about $3k of its collection funding removed by the state (and 3k goes nowhere) and staff cuts. So they WILL do it is there is not enough of a pushback.

Slash and burn it. We have too many libraries anyway. The ones around here are ghost towns.

Okay, I know you're being cute with the like-netflix-with-books thing, but really, the library has far more than books. Like access to online databases with paid content you can trust. Librarians who have masters degrees to help answer your questions, guide your information search, and help you find a book or movie. Free programs so you can learn to do things, know things, be things. Job search help. Computers free to the public. Wireless. And more.

As far as private funding: most libraries do have a Friends group and a foundation so that they can get private funding. They do partnerships (or should I say, REALLY CHEAP ADVERTISING FOR COMPANIES WHO DONATE ALMOST NOTHING FOR THE PRIVILEGE). They suck up to friends and neighbors and library patrons. Libraries are a public good. There are foundations - like the Gates Foundation - that offer grants to libraries, but they are few and far between and don't want to offer money for day to day operations like salaries or materials. They want the big splash - programs, technology, marketing.

Private funding cannot take the place of public funding. Andrew Carnegie knew this when he mandated that any town that took Carnegie funding for a library have a plan for future public funding.

Ohio has one of the best library systems in the nation. When a library says it is solely funded by the state, it doesn't mean that it has no used booksale, no donations accepted, no grants searched for. It just means that the bulk of the cost is borne by the state. You can't pay your professional librarians and provide appropriate up to date materials with the part that doesn't come from the state.

its not quite 50% but its damn close. Strickland not only wants to cut funding to the library, but also to our public schools. The idiot. In the budget I have YET to hear that legislators are taking a pay cut or even a pay freeze. Yes, he says the cuts are across the board, but I have yet to see proof of that, that everything is getting a 30% cut. And he also wants to write in slot machines to bring in extra money, something we Ohioan voters have MAJORLY declined the last 3 times it was brought for us to vote on. Yes, I know times are tough. Yes, I know we need to balance the budget. And yes, our libraries here do get private funding from donations and the like. But I think he's going about it all wrong. Cutting funding to schools and libraries will cause more harm than good.

The money has to come from somewhere. Would the citizens of Ohio prefer a tax increase, cuts to public safety budgets (police, fire, etc.), cuts to schools or cuts to the library? You can't have it all. As was mentioned above, tax revenues are falling everywhere. The status quo simply can't be maintained absent cuts or tax increases. EIther Ohio needs to find other places to cut, or they need to raise taxes. Raising taxes in the current environment is a terrible idea; people already have a hard time paying their bills and buying things. If taxes go up, people will cut spending even further. When people spend less, companies make less. When companies make less, they cut/freeze salaries, cut hiring and lay people off. It's a self-perpetuating cycle. While libraries serve an important community function, they are becoming less and less "necessary" given the proliferation of internet access. I'd rather see them close the library, or shorten its hours, than cut police, fire or school funding. It sucks, but it's the reality we currently live in.

@PsiCop: A lot of school districts already went through this years ago, which is why many school districts today either have privately funded music and band programs or none at all. And you're right, it boils down to how important that is to the local constituents (fortunately in my district, band IS important and we have a privately funded, state champion band program.)

I'm a little more worried about libraries though. I remember my own high school years and I don't think I would have gotten through them without an off-campus library.

Yes, it's a scam to scare us into accepting higher taxes. But allowing them to cut library funding isn't the answer. My vote is for paying Ohio politicians minimum wage until the budget is fixed.

I don't care how few people take advantage of it; in a democracy, there should be as free a flow of information as possible.

@henwy: That is probably due to a lack of programming and librarians who aren't doing as much as the could to get people into the library. A library isn't just about books, it is a community center as well.

@takes_so_little:
I agree, but I think as time has passed, a public library is less and less necessary to permit/foster that free flow of information.

I'm not religious, libraries are the closet thing to a church to me and doing this to them is sick. My MLS is gonna be USELESS in a year, huh?

Libraries are good. They have books and information, they're wonderful insitutions and to just cut their budgets so harshly is incredible. Here's an idea, why doesn't that governor take a pay cut?

@Eldritch:
Why should the Governor/Legislators take pay cuts? They are already (generally) paid far below what they would make in the private sector. It's their job to make these kinds of decisions; why should they take a pay cut because of it?

How about incorporating public libraries with college and university libraries, combining funding to reduce costs? Or how about public cooperatives and volunteer groups to staff them, especially in rural areas?

I'm all for and support libraries and librarians, and tax money should fund them, and full funding should be restored if the economy improves. But if trusted volunteers can be a way to reduce staffing and operating costs in the short term, why not try it? One would think it's better to have two full time librarians and an all volunteer staff than have no library at all.

I bet the libertarians are absolutely ecstatic over the shuttering of this socialist institution.

The thing is, the state budget shortfall is only 6%. Libraries are being cut by about 50% -- and this comes on the heels of eight solid years of cuts already. Governor Strickland calls it "shared sacrifice". But libraries -- which make up barely 1% of the annual budget -- are being asked to carry 14% of this year's budget cuts. What about that is "shared"?

libraries are just government sponsored piracy anyways.

@takes_so_little:

sup internet

@humphrmi: the town I grew up in had a "Friends of the Library" which was responsible for a lot of fundraising and ran the annual used book sale. Residents donated their old unwanted books and the library sold them on the town common.

@Beki: Taking it one step further, enact a lein on all Ohio politicians' future household earnings so they live at poverty level---until the budget is fixed.

That will prevent them from skipping town and leaving the citizens with the detritus of their poor management.

@misokitty: The town I grew up in had a GREAT library....the town I moved to, a not so great library. Don't get me wrong, the library here tries its best but it is entirely too small for a town of 20-30K people. There WAS a fund set aside to build a new library or expand the old one.....but the enlightened voters decided that the money could be used for other things and raided that fund.
Perhaps this library needs a "Friends of the Library" like the town I grew up in.

@PsiCop: if something is enough of a benefit to society that tax money should be spent on it, then doesn't it stand to reason that it could also be supported by private donations?

No no no no no. If something is enough of a benefit to society, you make it (or keep it) public, not private. Public benefit ... why not public funding? Private funding is for private benefits.

Your logic could be extended to schools ... if they really do benefit society, couldn't private funding keep them alive? Or roads ... if they really benefit society, privatize them!

That's not how privatization works. If something is a public benefit, keep control of it public.

@panzerschreck1: not everyone HAS internet....and in this economic climate libraries have been doubling as job search centers. Where else is there a staff that will help you EDIT your resume FOR FREE?

Sometime in the last 10-15 years, the libraries in my town transformed into glorified homeless shelters. I can't imagine letting children hang around unsupervised in the public library the way I used to.

God forbid a librarian throw out a urine soaked psycho for sleeping in the liabrary. The ACLU would have her crucified in public. Even though I loved spending time in the public library when I was a kid, I wouldn't mind seeing them shut down. They have been made obsolete by the internet and made dangerous and unuseable by todays politically correct laws.

@Andy Shaw: You say "it won't last". But when the government takes things away it rarely, if ever, gives them back. Take, for example, the TSA. Give an inch and they take a whole beepin' mile. Can't let them take that first inch.

And after all that work redoing the one in Lakewood...

@Andy Shaw: Uh, your comment doesn't make any sense, except in a paranoid, completely anti-tax, ignorant republican kind of way. I live in Ohio. I believe our last local library tax issue around here passed when it came up for a vote. There are NO library tax increases planned for the next election (yet).

Every state in the nation is dealing with a lower amount of funding (tax money rolling in), and our elected officials decided that their bloated salaries and perks are untouchable. Never mind the fact that the State Supreme Court ruled (over 9000 times) that the school funding system in this state is illegal/unconstitutional etc. The people in office need to be held PERSONALLY and FINANCIALLY ACCOUNTABLE for their policies.

Libraries provide valuable service to everyone, regardless of income or tax liability. If you choose not to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge available to you, that's just fine, more for me. I, personally, am a voracious reader, and I can't really afford the $10,000+ it would take each and every year to buy a hard copy of the numerous things I read, as well as copies of every movie I watch that are from the library.

@PsiCop: The state of PA is facing a similar 50 percent proposed state hudget cut, but I just can't get on board the "contact your representatives and stop this!" bandwagon.

My local library system made their own budget cuts a month ago and laid off some of their staff. I wasn't even aware of this until I read it last week in a Friends of the Library newsletter. I have no noticed absolutely no difference in the level service despite these drastic cuts. This leads me to believe that there is a lot of bloat and waste that needs to be trimmed. Yes it's sad that a few people lost their jobs, and I realize that nobody wants to lose a penny of funding if they can help it, but it's not as if the library completely ceased to exist.

@bdgbill: Some libraries have become de facto homeless centers because social service budgets have been slashed to the point where there is no where else for these people to go. Libraries are used by more people and are stretched in more more ways than many other public institutions for a very low taxpayer cost. You're not the only one noticing this change: [www.nytimes.com]

In my experience people who call libraries obsolete haven't been to a library lately.

@P_Smith:

They already are in some places to some extent.

The problem with that generally, though, is that their collections don't overlap very much, and their missions don't overlap very much. This is particularly important when it comes to electronic resources from private vendors, as the library could end up paying more for additional potential users who are non-users. (Depending on how integrated they are, of course).

Also, that gives them multiple masters, and when there is a disagreement between the local government and the university, the library gets caught in the middle (and it gets to take all the blame).

A community college library is a lot more similar to a public library. That could work pretty well, and in many cases the community college and the library both have the same parent organization already. (This sort of integration also occurs, BTW)

@panzerschreck1:

And yet publishers are generally pretty enthusiastic about them.

A couple of thousand extra sales...most of which would not cut into private sales, BTW...is a couple of thousand extra sales. Particularly for non-bestsellers.

According to [www.cincinnatilibrary.org] there is progress being made in the funding.

"Thank You for your support
Your messages to our legislators voicing how important libraries are for our residents have been heard! Our legislators have expressed their support for libraries.

We encourage you to check the Library's website for funding updates. We believe the budget process will continue for several more weeks.

Thank you again for your wonderful support."

@Monica Harris:

Libraries aren't obsolete in the US and will not be as long as the US lacks cheap public internet access (no, free-wifi does not count).

With this generation of kids reading less and less; closing libraries seems like the totally wrong thing to do. These are the seemingly small things that ripple through our society that don't manifest themselves till years later. As a nation we're already one of the most ignorant, now we can work on being one of those least literate, as well.

@Esquire99: Look around at the money being spent in your community. You'll probably see that at 1/3 of it disappears without a trace into various unjustifiable "projects" and "positions" that are little more than fronts to cover the theft of taxpayer money. The past few years government revenue soared, and now they have to return to normal levels of funding. So they cut services first, while continuing to reward themselves and their friends.

Originally legislation was supposed to be a part time job (and is in some states). Until legislators and their many staffers are working real jobs that actually contribute to the tax base, any budget cuts will be hypocritical.

@bdgbill:

Some libraries keep cans of lysol around for such people.

Seriously, though, what is your solution to this problem? What criterion do you use to decide who stays and who goes? Is it hygiene? People who bathe can't be dangerous? People who don't are homeless?

Okay, I grew up in a place where a lot of people didn't have running water. The public library actually had a sign at the door asking people not to bother others about their hygiene.

The only fair criterion for ejecting someone is whether they are actually harming other people or library resources...behavior that would get them removed from any public space, including the street.

@HooFoot:

Or it could just mean that they didn't cut anything that YOU use.

@shepd: It's also when they cut funding for community colleges, when laid-off workers are going back to school to retrain!

@Snarkysnake: I wonder what the other 30% of public libraries get partial funding from? I can only reasonably see that those libraries are charging membership fees to supplement their income.

@PsiCop: "This means any campaign to maintain these funds should also be supplemented by fundraising to compensate for any loss in funding, once it comes down the pike."

The problem is that if you do this, you penalize good fundraisers by pulling their public funding. This is why there's such an incentive to spend every last time in your budget because if you didn't spend it, you didn't need it. We need some kind of system that rewards frugality and forward-thinking and development of monetary reserves, instead of punishing those organizations by cutting their funding.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): *every last dime

@Esquire99: "Would the citizens of Ohio prefer a tax increase, cuts to public safety budgets (police, fire, etc.), cuts to schools or cuts to the library?"

We don't get to prefer anything. We are already seeing cuts to police, fire, and emergency dispatch. The libraries and schools are next in line, not first. If we don't vote for an income tax increase next month, we lose even more firefighters and police officers.