Kansas and Libraries

***WARNING - RANT AHEAD***

I attended a focus group last week, the purpose of which was to help form a list of what is essential in a database package for Kansas.  Sound pretty dry, right?

It was.  But there was an interesting side to it that really wasn't talked about until the very end.  The question on everyone's mind was, "How are we going to pay for this?"  And the answer was, "We don't know, the money has all gone."

So how did this happen?  Well, first off the economy went in the tank a couple of years ago.  So, cost cutting became even more of a mantra in the legislature.  And the cutting was done with a sword rather than a scalpel.  So far, from a library perspective everything REALLY useful has been cut to the bone.  Not only was state aid reduced (direct aid to libraries) for what I think was the 4th year in a row, several statewide programs were massacred.  So this year, Kan-Ed had its funding slashed.  This is basically because big telecoms don't want the downward price pressure on their services.  You see, Kan-Ed provides low- or no-cost T-1 connections to public entities like libraries that can't otherwise afford "high speed" Internet.  Now, I take issue with the definition of "high speed" Internet as our providers use it, but that's a rant for another day.  Unfortunately, by slashing Kan-Ed's funding, over 50% of the funds for statewide databases - these tools provided here - disappeared.  And in the next budget year, they are gone all together - nearly $1 million.

Now, bear in mind that all of the cutting, I was told directly, was to reduce the "government footprint".  And, that ,"We're not looking to increase your [the library's] costs or reduce access..."

So, can you guess what happened?  EXACTLY.  Our direct costs, because we lost the power of purchasing in a state-wide contract, have increased and our ability to provide access to information has already and will continue to be drastically reduced over this year and next.

Lest you think that nothing was done to enlighten our state government as to the results of these actions, librarians and others across the state wrote, emailed, talked directly to, and testified in the state house about these matters.  Only, instead of listening to feedback from knowledgeable sources, no provisions were made to transfer funds from Kan-Ed to the State Library to administer state-wide tools and services.  Instead, contracts will lapse, work will have to be repeated, and much more struggle for funds will have to be made in order to even BEGIN negotiating new contracts - and worst of all, library service and credibility will be damaged.

You may not know this, but the Kan-Ed funds I have mentioned so often are actually "Kansas Universal Service Fund" (KUSF) monies.  They are collected by the Kansas Corporation Commission and WILL CONTINUE to be collected at the same rate as before.  The legislature merely choose to not allocate them to Kan-Ed.  Taxes (or in this case service fees) are not any lower because of this action.

What can you do?  Contact your legislator and ask her or him to allocate to the State Library KUSF funds not given to Kan-Ed to provide for state-wide library services.  Kan-Ed funding went from $10 million per year to $6 million.  That means there are $4 million available - even a quarter of that amount would allow us to restore lost services and take pressure off the State Library so that they might be able to stave off further cuts to direct aid or other services.

[Wipes spittle from corner of mouth]

What does a public library look like?

I was thinking about the future of libraries today while participating in the library board meeting.  We were talking about where we go at HPL with downloadable media of all types.  It is my current belief that libraries everywhere will be subscribing to more than one online content provider to get the broad scope of what is (and what will be) available for download.

Warehouse?

Center of the City?

Tiny kiosk?

Here's what I think will happen:  Despite all the talk about ebooks driving the future of reading / publishing, there is still an important demographic that prefers paper, or can't afford the technology, has no access to high speed Internet, or any number of other contributing factors.  The library will have another demographic to cater to - the ebook patron.  Just like before them came the downloadable audio patron, the DVD patron, the VHS patron, the tape audiobook patron, the CD music patron, the vinyl / 8-Track / microfilm / microfiche / plain-old-book patrons before them.

Ebook readers don't kill libraries.  Lack of good services for lending ebooks does.  When the publishers realize that libraries DO promote their authors and DO promote a love of reading and services like OverDrive realize loaning ematerial CAN be easy and seamless (look at 3M Cloud Library, hint, hint), libraries will integrate this new media and move on.  Afterall, libraries are so much more than the materials they loan out.  Libraries serve a function in their communities no other entity can fulfill - they cause the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to be injected into the real world.  Sound grandiose?  It isn't - public libraries provide space to assemble, access (at least for awhile) information to allow the existence of an informed electorate, defend the freedom of speech, and ensure at least some measure of equality to all this across the increasingly disparate ends of the socio-economic spectrum.