When one library is in trouble, ALL libraries are in trouble

"When one library is in trouble, ALL libraries are in trouble."

Lori Reed spoke about Charlotte-Mecklenberg's libraries this morning at Computers in Libraries 2010. They are facing a 50% cut in budget and more than 50% staff. Her presentation was passionate, moving, and upsetting, and I wish she had been invited as a keynote speaker, because EVERYONE at CIL2010 should have had the opportunity to listen to her.

Lori works at a five star library with 6 LJ movers and shakers on staff. People at her library created 23 things as a way to learn, years ago, and there are still packed conference halls of libraries asking about it. They have an innovative program called "Library by mail" for patrons to get materials without coming to the library, and they run another program called "Connections that Count," presented in Spanish, to prepare children from birth to age 5 so they'll be ready to go to school.

Lori Reed recently had to offer training for her coworkers on how to apply for unemployment benefits. Think about your colleagues, at your library. Some of them are aggravating, some of them are indifferent, some of them are your real friends. Do you want to train them in how to apply for unemployment? Would it be better if they were training you instead?
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First they made cuts to the small public libraries. They must have been ignoring their users, or not innovative enough. They weren't closing down, just cutting hours and programs. I couldn't really do anything anyway. (Sure, I got laid off*, but I got another job.)

Then they cut the community college libraries. But let's face it, why does someone getting a two-year degree really need the resources that a library provides? They think that everything's on Google and so do most of their professors.

Then they cut the staff at major, Ivy League schools. But they were probably overstaffed already, right?

Then they started closing branches. But a branch is only a part of a library, so closing one doesn't mean the same as closing the whole library. People could still go to the library - as long as they have time for longer drives, or more likely walks or subway rides, and as long as they can get to the remaining branches during the remaining hours of operation.

Now they want to cut the budget at Charlotte-Mecklenberg by 50%.

What's the next thing?

This is the next thing. Please get involved. I'm going to try to help, too.

http://savelibraries.org

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*This is a fact of my career, and I was lucky to get another position quickly. And to have been laid off early enough that I wasn't competing in a job market like today's. (The rest of this part of my post is intended in a very sad way...tone is hard to convey, so to be clear, I'm not being funny or snarky and I'm not comparing it to Nazi Germany and I don't think that I'm providing some deep meaning here. It's just the way my thoughts came to me this morning.)