The Indiana State Senate passed SB 348 February 24, 2009. Referred to as the "Library Bill" in an article in the Indy Star, the bill would require all counties except for Marion to form a committee to look at the library services in each county and decide if it should expand, consolidate, or do nothing. The goal appears to be to improve library services to all residents of Indiana. The article states that approximately a half million residents of Indiana do not have library services where they live despite the state housing 239 library districts in 92 counties. I think this is a great goal to have, as public libraries should be accessible to all.
The problem I have with this bill is that by excluding one county, it may not really be serving the needs of Indiana residents. The purpose of the committees in each county are to look at the services of each library to its residents and look at options. One of the options is to leave the library system in the county as it is. I cannot believe that the representatives of Speedway or even the Speedway library itself does not want to look into how well it serves the residents in its districts. Speedway has voiced its concerns of being consolidated into the IMCPL, but by keeping Marion country from forming a committee to assess the services supplied to residents, Speedway is possibly keeping services from residents for the fear of something that is not guaranteed to happen in the first place. If Marion County were to perform the study through a committee and find that the county has done a good job of meeting its residents needs, that would help Speedway in their desire to remain independent. If Marion County would find that it is not doing the best job it could, wouldn't the Speedway library want to do its part to help its residents?
In a related article, it is reported that Beech Grove, an independent public library in the same situation as Speedway, understands Speedways concerns but would not have opposed Marion County being in the bill.
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ReplyDeleteI can understand why Speedway asked not to be included in this bill. I am sure that there is a strong pressure from the IMCPL system to consolidate it with their libraries. Often, these consolidations leave the new branch library with less funding, and therefore less staff and less independence in programming.
ReplyDeleteI do think that Speedway could have been more open about making sure that Marion County was properly served. However, we know that Marion County has a public library system throughout the area, so that is not really an issue in this county. It is an issue in other counties, like the counties Gretchen mentioned.
What would you have done if you were in their shoes? Would you have openly considered being turned into a branch library and risked losing your independence in programming and collection development, if not your job, or would you have asked for an exemption? It would be interesting to see Speedway's thoughts on this article.
Your post made me think of my nephew. He lives in an unserved area. We used my mom's address for his library card and since the Children's librarian is my friends mom it wasn't questioned. I wonder how many other Indiana residents have this problem. It will be interesting to see what speedway does in the future.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see how this evolves over time and what the committee recommends. It's a complex issue that has definite pros and cons.
ReplyDeleteGretchen, I guess we are all products of our experiences. When you mentioned that there are people who just don't see the value in paying extra taxes to support a library they probably won't use, my first reaction to this (a few years ago) was, what kind of person would not want a library to go to?
ReplyDeleteWell, in past years there was a prominent person here in Indiana(who avoided IMCPL like the plague)and who was always finding fault with the IMCPL system. No system is perfect. One of his comments was that not everyone needed or wanted a library because many people could afford to buy their own books. It was almost like someone had smacked me in the face..In my limited and lower income world I had always felt that libraries were right up there with all the wonders of the world. A few other people agreed with him which really made me stop and think. This is another type of digital divide only in reverse. That was when I had to realize that not everyone had the same love or need for libraries as many of us city folk. Rude awakening.
Sorry all, I'm still trying to figure out how to separate all my blogs. Boomersblog is Maywin Jackson
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