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Library Closings: Volunteerism Is Not the Answer
Other librarians in California and I stand in solidarity with the systems and people of Colton and Ventura in finding the closures a poor decision by agency administrators which stand to hurt users more than help "solve" budget crises. My concern is in how one library system, the Reading (Pennsylvania) Public Library, addressed the closure of their three branch libraries in order to protect their main (downtown) library. One of the bigger-scope items under discussion was the transfer of the main library to the county, removing it from the vagaries of city funding in order for it to continue to serve as the main library in a consortium serving a county of 400,000. That's not what's disturbing.
The city was seriously considering allowing volunteers, an idea sponsored by local churches, to open and operate the branches. I applaud the concept of community-level involvement to save their branches. The problem is that volunteers cannot be relied upon nor are likely not to have the skills or education of a member of circulation staff, much less a degreed librarian. Further, people with religious convictions are not likely to be able to provide services with the same impartial professionalism that trained, paid staffers have had inculcated into their way of serving patrons. *This cannot happen here.* I would rather see the libraries privatized a' la Moorpark or the Riverside County Library System than have untrained people try to talk a frightened teenager out of checking out a book on abortion.
That's the risk. For all I know, this may be an agency power-play to accomplish this task. Whatever the motive, we need to be attentive as a profession to have situations such as this endanger the public welfare.
This issue, to me, goes to the heart of what being a librarian during an economic crisis is all about. Sometimes a decision to privatize is functionally irreversible when a city management's decision to re-open branches and restoring hours (as we saw here in Salinas in the past and in Colton in November) can take place. But can we wait for public outcry every time a branch or a library closes? Communities may need to make the choice between public safety and access to information. Does a community have the right to be in the business of operating public libraries if faced with that choice? Does the Riverside County model make sense in light of a city's or county's complete economic collapse?
As professionals, we have an obligation to keep our communities' libraries open without depending on volunteers for critical daily operations. Our libraries can thrive with "helping hands;" they collapse when people unaware of the ALA Library Bill of Rights take hold of the wheel.
Submitted by John Marquette, CLA Member
Posted on December 24, 2009 9:01 AM | Permalink