By Sarah Hall
Editor
If the state doesn’t come through with more funding for libraries, Linda Byrne doesn’t want to think about what that means for the Jordan Bramley Library.
“We’d have to look at cuts,” said Byrne, the library’s executive director. “It might be hours, material, it might be programming. … I haven’t thought much about it because I don’t want to think about it.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2018-19 executive budget proposes a 3 percent cut in library aid ($91 million statewide), as well as a 42 percent cut to library construction aid ($14 million). The cuts are part of a downward trend Liverpool Public Library Board of Trustees President Mark Spadafore said has been ongoing since about 2007. While libraries do receive additional funding in the form of state grants, he said the cuts are unsustainable.
“We get very little funding, and that’s been part of the problem,” Spadafore said. “The problem is that the funding for libraries has been flat for many, many years now.”
This year, the New York Library Association (NYLA) is urging legislators to increase library aid to at least $100 million. The current budget proposal’s funding is closer to 2006 levels.
Meanwhile, library usage has skyrocketed. A Siena Research Institute Poll conducted in January of 2017 found that over the last five years, more people of every demographic have used their libraries. The poll found that 20 percent of African-American and Latino respondents and 25 percent of households with incomes less than $50,000 rely on libraries as their primary source of internet access. A whopping 92 percent of New Yorkers said their local library is an important part of their education system.
“We’re part of the state’s educational infrastructure,” Spadafore said. “We are critical for access to internet, especially for people in rural areas and for communities of color. A lot of times, we are the only access point to that.”
The great equalizer
Indeed, libraries are meant to level the playing field in areas where there is a wide wealth gap, according to Northern Onondaga Public Libraries (NOPL) Executive Director Kate McCaffrey.
“I guess I’m an idealistic person,” McCaffrey said. “I think that children should have access to the same kinds of materials, whether their families live in a wealthy [school] district and pay really high taxes, or they live in the city and pay lower taxes. They already go to schools where the quality of the schools may not be as good, or [have] as many resources for them.”
That’s not just true for children. McCaffrey pointed out that seniors, many of whom are on a limited income, are some of the libraries’ most active users.
“I think that’s important, just from a justice sense, because it raises up the quality of life in our county,” she said.
Moreover, libraries are important to maintain healthy communities. In a blog entry for the Brookings Institution last year, researchers Marcela Cabelo and Stuart M. Butler noted that libraries are much more than a place to take out books.
“In many communities, librarians are also ad hoc social workers and navigators,” Cabelo and Butler wrote. “They help local people figure out the complexities of life, from navigating the health system to helping those with housing needs.”
Spadafore agreed.
“Especially for people in communities that are struggling, libraries are the best investment,” he said. “A lot of times, it’s the place where people go for different things, access to media, access to the internet, access to programs.”
Making the system work
In order to provide that access, the libraries in Onondaga County work in cooperation.
“What’s really critical for us is the [state] money that supports the OCPL system, and the services they provide, which are things like a daily delivery among the libraries,” McCaffrey said. “They provide the integrated library system that we all use, the catalog, but also the other parts of that that make our system work, and allow people to borrow things easily from all the libraries.”
The Onondaga County Public Library (OCPL) system’s interlibrary loan program and its countywide database are funded through state library aid. Without that aid, McCaffrey, who worked in the county system for 18 years before coming to NOPL, said there will be consequences.
“What I see is staffing decreases, because of lack of funding,” she said. “There aren’t enough people to do the quality of work that we need.”
For small libraries like Jordan Bramley, which has an annual budget of just under $103,000, any such cuts could be damaging.
“The biggest support is our circulation system,” Barnes said. “That circulation system allows our patrons to place holds and utilize what other libraries own, which is huge because with a small budget, I can’t possibly purchase everything that my patrons would like. Then we have a delivery system where, when the items are placed on hold, there’s an actual delivery van that goes to the library, picks it up, takes it back to central, sources it, and then takes it accordingly to whichever library it belongs to or is needing it. Those two things right there are … that’s our existence.”
Even bigger libraries rely on the interlibrary loan system.
“During 2016, the Liverpool library borrowed 67,857 items from other libraries and loaned 55,529,” said Glenna Wisniewski, Liverpool’s director.
The OCPL system also allows member libraries to access databases and e-content as well as books. The county also handles purchasing for member libraries, done at a reduced cost because of the system’s size.
“Libraries are extremely efficient,” McCaffrey said. “I think we get the most out of every dollar in libraries. It’s just sort of the way we operate.”
‘Stop playing games’
All acknowledged that getting more funding would be an uphill battle.
“This is going to be a tough, tough year,” Spadafore said. There’s a $4 billion hole in the state budget. We’re going to be, I hate to use this term, but competing with all these other interests who are trying to limit the damage.”
The deadline for the state budget is April 1. Spadafore encouraged residents to contact their local state legislators to advocate for their libraries.
“I would say call the office,” Spadafore said. “That’s the most effective way to get through to your legislator…. Let me say this, all four [state legislators serving the Liverpool area] have been very supportive of libraries… but what I would say is call their offices and really emphasize the fact that we need support for libraries.”
McCaffrey said she hoped constituents would be able to convince the states to “stop playing games with library funding, and to just support it in a consistent way.”
“I don’t mean with huge increases,” she said. “It’s difficult for the systems to live with always the threat of losing funding, and it makes it very difficult for them to plan ahead, to do long-range planning, to implement new programs and know that they’ll be sustainable…. Those are small libraries with small staffs and not a lot of funding would be badly hurt without the system funding, without services that the system provides.”
