Lacy Tite's List: Econ - Libraries

• Annual local taxes spent for library operations yield substantial direct benefits. Each library returns more than $1 of benefits for each $1 of annual taxes. In the first study, SLPL returned more than $2.50 in benefits per tax dollar; Baltimore County Public Library returned more than $3 in benefits per tax dollar; Birmingham Public Library returned at least $1.30 in benefits per tax dollar; Phoenix Public Library returned over $10 in benefits per tax dollar; and King County Library System returned more than $5 in benefits per tax dollar

• The concept of the return on taxpayer investment that is part of the study implicitly incorporates the opportunity to assess the benefits of private-public financial partnerships. Private-sector gift-and-grant programs magnify library service benefits to local patrons beyond those paid for by taxes.

• The City Paper today reported that Donna Nicely, director of the Nashville Public Library, has been asked by the mayor to identify $800,000 in library budget cuts. Her suggestion would be to close the larger branch libraries on Sundays (they are currently open from 2-5pm) as well as cutting staffing hours such that they would equal the elimination of 18 full-time positions. Moreover, it is also proposed that the main downtown branch decrease the amount of time it is open during the week.
• undays, I think they should be open for even more hours on Sundays. Director Nicely said herself that it is not an issue of the library not being used enough: "our numbers are just increasing, our number of visits and checkouts, people are using it in a wonderful way.”
• Too many people depend on the library and use it on a daily basis. Our students use them to study and write reports, our families use them to check out books for their children, and some depend on the library to pay their salary and help to feed their family.
• Councilman Charlie Tygard said it best: "We spent millions of dollars to build a world-class library system, and then we don’t place a priority on keeping the doors open for the public."

2 more annotations...

• “A city with a great library is a great city”

    

  The line above is emblazoned on a wall inside the Nashville library.

    

  But the 10 words could be merely chiseled in the stone as another “memorable” phrase, waiting for journalists and well-wishers simply to repeat it with no attention to how it is applied.

    

  In Nashville the community placed action behind the words.

    

  Then-mayor Phil Bredesen envisioned a new central downtown facility that would maintain the traditional services provided by a library but also expand the structural walls to include public spaces, a center court for outdoor gatherings, and a creative center for children to explore, to participate, to read and to learn.

• The branches that extend into metropolitan Nashville are crafted for specific communities — no cookie-cutter allowed. This means a fit for those being served and dollars that match those requirements.

    

  One branch may have computers for use and for checking out materials; another may include more shelved books, reading areas.

• n an era when much is written about the abandonment of written material for the ease of a computer keyboard and screen that provide instantaneous information from the comfort of a chair, Mrs. Nicely sees a continued and renewed interest in rich, printed text.

    

  The computer and the Internet may open the door to a world of knowledge, but “we will see people saying, ‘Let me see the document.’” When the request is made, the library provides the answer — in print.

    

  “We need to know about bringing people out,” and with the commitment visible in Nashville, there is little doubt that the 10 words that frame the doorway into a reading room that faces the state Capitol sum up a commitment for a great library and a great city.

1 more annotation...

• The problem is that all but a few newspapers have lost their historic mass middle-class, commuter or along-with-meal reader market. Except for the few “national newspapers,” none of the solutions (e.g. higher quality, tonier features, more gossip, more analysis, more sports, cheapening production, firing or retiring expensive reporters, or going to tabloid size and sleaze) seems to regain or hold readership. The economic result has been continuing consolidations. And, still the ex-sanguinations of subscriptions continues.

• The first and greatest change is the shift to digital publishing, databases and information dissemination has decreased fundamentally the value of library material collections and has allowed individuals to transform their personal ways of acquiring the data, information and knowledge they want and believe they need.  

  When individuals or groups suggest that “We can get rid of libraries,” they most often are premising that claim on the belief that “In my work and personal life I don’t need the information or books or magazines that libraries have because I can get what I need faster and cheaper on the Internet than I can by a physical trip to a place called a library."  

  Librarians who recognize the often correct premise of this claim are already busy changing their libraries’ business offerings to meet the needs of current and different potential customers. Naïve librarians, meanwhile, are attending yet one more seminar on “Selling your Library” or “Marketing your Library’s Collections.”
• Libraries are all caught up in the economic issues of the New Media Era. In response to those changing economic issues, our professional leaders and library professionals as a whole are going to have to make tough decisions to create a bright future for our libraries.

1 more annotation...

• Darnton believes Google Book Search will make book learning accessible worldwide and allow research "involving vast quantities of data." But instead of making research libraries obsolete, Google will make them "more important than ever."
• Even if Google were to digitize 90% of all the books in the U.S., the undigitized 10% would still be important. Only a few copies of certain lesser-known, but nonetheless significant, literary works and popular literature from the past may survive--usually in libraries.
• The combined holdings of the libraries in the Google Books Library Project still won't "come close to exhausting the stock of books in the United States...[because] there is little redundancy in the holdings." And Google hasn't yet ventured into worldwide literature or special collections.
• Copyright will continue to pose problems. The number of books published keeps increasing (291,920 in the U.S. in 2006). Google isn't likely to be able to keep up with current production while at the same time digitizing old books.
• Long live Google, he says, "but don't count on it living long enough to replace" the venerable library.
• "As a citadel of learning and as a platform for adventure on the Internet, the research library still deserves to stand at the center of the campus, preserving the past and accumulating energy for the future."

4 more annotations...

• Our libraries may be marketplaces of ideas, but they are marketplaces nonetheless. The canon of classics is in constant turmoil and evolution. The mission of the public library isn't to place the seal of eternal judgment on specific titles; instead, our mission is to reflect our culture as it happens, talent and tawdriness alike. That includes a steady wellspring from the past--witness Jane Austen's resurgent popularity--and the fresh precipitation of authors on whom the juries of history are still deliberating. (I've got juries deliberating on rainfall here, but I hope the point is clear.) 

  Miller asks, "Why must we have government-run libraries at all?" Here are three reasons: 

   
  1. Because not everybody can afford to purchase new books. Public libraries are a "bootstrap" institution, providing resources to folks who might not otherwise get them. 
  2. Because libraries do more than provide bestsellers. We provide children's books and story times, perhaps our nation's most potent strategy for sowing literacy in the land. We provide public programs, of both civic and recreational nature, thereby building communities, and providing access to ideas that are in short supply elsewhere. We answer reference questions essential to students, struggling entrepreneurs, curious voters, and more. We bridge the digital divide, and thereby participate in still-emerging forms of creativity and social discourse. And yes, we preserve parts of the past--but not as museums. We are workshops for the future. 
  3. Because having publicly funded institutions that actively respond to the paying customer is a good idea. Public institutions that ignore today's public interests and needs not only die, they deserve to.

• After reading this report, the statement that very few libraries have closed seems entirely accurate. According to the ALA Fact sheet: 

   
  • There are more than 123,291 libraries in the United States 
  • Of those, 16,543 are public libraries. 
  • This report makes an assessment between the years 1999-2003. During that time 438 public libraries closed. 
  • Well...that's not accurate. 134 libraries actually closed. The first number includes libraries that have closed and re-opened or where services were merged, replaced, etc. It doesn't mean closed and no services. The 134 libraries closed are closed with no services and no alternatives. 
  • What percentage of public libraries in the United States actually closed over the four-year study period? One tenth of one percent!

• The categories of closure are good as is the analysis of why libraries fail. 

  Thse notes on ongoing issues are extremely useful: 

   
  1. Specific actions to minimize potential impacts of a closure on existing library users are rarely taken. 

     (Comment: how many libraries have used story time, closure and other items as a political pawn when other cost savings could be implemented?) 

      
  2. The...population within a one mile radius of closed libraries tended to be poorer, less educated and with more renters than homeowners compared to the entire U.S. population in 1999.  

     (Comment: The poor are most affected. However, according to the Awareness report, they provide the least amount of support to the library.) 

      
  3. Migration of America’s population to large population centers may be creating problems for rural libraries. 

     (Comment, We have the opposite effect. More people are moving to our medium-sized community because of the low cost of living. This has created greater usage and strain on our services. More houses mean more one-time revenue, but not more operating revenue. That's an entirely different long-term problem.)

• Some advice from the front, provided as responses to a question on how to prevent unwanted closures: 

   
  • "Neighborhood advocacy would help prevent closures..." 
  • “[Before] opening a branch” make sure the library systems can sustain it... 
  • Shopping centers might not be the best fit for libraries, if rent changes frequently or it is inconvenient for users to reach... 
  • If the library does control or own a facility, possible closure cannot be controlled...[ 
  • [One-time] grants should not be used to open libraries... 
  • Open hours [need to be] convenient for users. In one instance, banker’s hours where no one could get to the library led to its demise. 
  • Maintain an attractive building with services and resources that people need and can access. 
   

  In summary, it can be seen that public library closures are usually caused by the evolving needs of the local libraries (e.g., remodeling, branch relocations, library mergers) or due to factors that are somewhat outside of the library’s direct control (e.g., reduction in funding or staffing). Lack of library use at the closed library is not the primary reason for most public library closures.

1 more annotation...

• The American Library Association says that as the nation's economy continues to slide, increasing numbers of Americans are turning to libraries. According to survey data, 68 percent of Americans have a library card — a figure that's up 5 percentage points since 2006 and is the highest since the group started gathering the data in 1990.

  Seventy-six percent of Americans visited their local public library in the past year, compared with 65.7 percent two years earlier, the group reported. Even larger increases were found in use of libraries' Web sites and online resources such as homework help, downloads of audio and video, and e-books.

  The survey found that 39 percent of people visit the library to borrow books, while 12 percent borrow CDs, videos or software, 9 percent use reference materials and 8 percent tap into free Internet access.

• Librarians in several Wisconsin communities noted the economy's effect on increases in use of their services.

  In Janesvillle, where a General Motors plant recently closed, traffic is booming at a new job resource center, with visitors asking reference librarians to help them get information on going back to school to learn new skills, searching job postings and writing a resume, library director Bryan McCormick said.

• Sun Prairie's computer lab was busy Tuesday morning, with people logged on at 10 of the library's 12 computers. Use is limited to 30 minutes per session and two hours per day.

  Among the users were Ron Smith, his wife, Barbara Jackson-Smith, and their teenage son Colin Bradley, who conducted a job hunt and checked e-mail because they can't afford home Internet service. Also among the users were Tami Sovereign, who was looking online for an apartment, and Chris Reese, who entertained himself by watching Japanese anime, a form of animation.

  "My motherboard got fried and I'm saving up for another one," Reese said.

  He was seated beside Bogie, who intently read job listings online.

1 more annotation...

• The difficulty with these statistical appliances is that they measure what libraries do, not the benefits their constituents derive from them. Politicians, taxpayers, and major donors care about how much the public benefits from the resources provided to libraries, not how many volumes circulated during the last month. When it comes to outcomes, all circulations are not equal (e.g., some represent reading; others represent browsing to find something to read). All visitations do not represent equal consumption of services or equal value to the library customer (e.g., stopping by to use the restroom or copier represents a different benefit from that derived by the prospective entrepreneur whom staff help to get the statistics needed to start a new business).
• Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
• Like other advocates of outcome-based measurement, however, they do believe that the library community can build a strong case for its continued economic legitimacy by measuring the benefits that libraries provide their constituents

1 more annotation...

• Benefits can be classified as direct or indirect, individual or collective. Users of library services receive benefits directly, such as the recreational enjoyment from reading a novel or the strategic advantage enjoyed by a business that researches a new market for its products. Libraries provide many indirect benefits also. Enhanced reading skills of a young participant in a summer reading program may be passed on to her progeny. The community as a whole may benefit from a more informed electorate. Individual users can cite specific benefits that accrue to them through the use of specific library services. For example, a household that checks out and views a video receives direct and individual benefits. Collective benefits accrue to all members of the neighborhood, however, if the very presence of the local library or library branch instills a shared sense of community and pride.
• Consumer surplus will be used to measure the value that library users place on separately valued library services. Consumer surplus measures the value that consumers place on the consumption of a good or service in excess of what they must pay to get it. Although library services typically are "free," many substitutes for library services are available in the marketplace. For example, library users can buy novels rather than borrow them from the library's collections. The willingness of library users to purchase such substitutes if the library service were not available is one indicator of the value that the user places on the particular library service.
• These calculations can be summed to provide an estimate of total direct annual benefits for all library users measured in dollars. This approach offers several merits. Respondents are comfortable with the queries' scenario: most households are accustomed to (or have at least considered) purchasing books, newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, or even Internet service. Most do not hesitate to respond about what additional purchases they would make if necessary to replace most library services (with the possible exception of staff help).

1 more annotation...

• cardholders' views of the library as an irreplaceable community asset.
• the CBA II study will ask library patrons how much they would be willing to pay rather than forego library usage or, if libraries did not exist, how much they would pay (in taxes) to enjoy the library privileges they have today.

• The results of a CBA study help board members and administrators see the relationship between the socioeconomic characteristics of communities and the value they place on library access and service.
• The results of a CBA study help board members and administrators see the relationship between the socioeconomic