Connie Larrabee’s coverage of the library meeting was spot on last week. Not only did she accurately summarize the meeting, she was able to concisely explain the latest issue regarding library certification, a feat unto itself. However, the editorial that appeared in the same paper, “A Flaw in the System” seems to have missed the point when it asks why state and local officials have not seen wrongdoing in the library’s annual request to be classified in the same category as a more populated town.
The following comes directly from the Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR 4.0 Section 4.01): “A library that is open the required hours for a larger population group may, by request of the library director and chair of the Library Trustees, expend the required materials expenditure for that population group.” At 53 hours, the library has been open more than the required number of hours for the next highest population group and thus has been able to expend only 16 percent instead of 19 percent of its budget on materials. Each year the library director and the trustees chairman file the appropriate paperwork in order to keep our materials expenditures down. It would be fiscally irresponsible not to. Many other libraries in the commonwealth do exactly the same thing.
What are the driving factors for certification of a public library in Massachusetts? To be certified the MBLC mandates a minimal funding formula, expending a set percentage of the budget on library materials, and being open at least a minimum number of required hours each week.
Why, one might ask, is the Harvard Public Library open more than its minimum of 25 hours? The answer to that question is that the voters in Harvard have continually supported additional open hours. In the last 20 years, library hours have increased from 43 to 53 hours not because the library director or trustees have asked for it, but because the voters have asked for it and approved it at Annual Town Meeting.
Expanded evening and Saturday hours have become busy times at the library for people who work during the week. Morning hours are filled with programs for toddlers and pre-schoolers. Afternoons have always been busy with students streaming in after the last school bell rings. Now that the library and the schools share one campus, more students than ever are coming to the library. Teachers at Bromfield are bringing classes over to the library for presentations on how to access the collection and online databases, and how to undertake a research project. It is a cooperative effort that comes from a shared mission of the two town entities.
Library statistics are routinely collected by the HPL staff as a requirement for state certification. The statistics make the point that since the new library opened, usage, circulation of materials, new library cards, questions to the reference desk, deliveries of books to homebound residents, and attendance at programs for children and teens all have increased.
Statistics are all very well and good, but hidden behind them is a powerful statement of who we are as a community. It is at the library where we can all be part of one shared experience. Whether you come for books or DVDs, a puppet show or a lecture, to read a magazine or do some research, you are there together with your neighbors young and old, rich and poor, PhDs and GEDs. It is the embodiment of the connection we all feel on Fourth of July while we watch the parade and pie-eaters and three-legged races and take joy in our little old-fashioned community. The library inspires the same connection to community each and every day. It is at once the town’s living room and the very thing that feeds our soul and helps define us. It is our history and our future.
Most recently the library was asked by the selectmen and the town administrator to reduce its budget by $40,000. This will be accomplished by closing on Fridays and running a leaner program throughout the rest of the year. We are now open 46 hours instead of 53. By making these cuts, the library, which represents less than 3 percent of the omnibus budget, absorbed over 11 percent of the town’s fiscal year 2009 mid-year budget reduction.
It is possible that more cuts will be hitting all departments as we head into the next fiscal year. The library wants to hear from you. What programs can be cut, and which ones should be left alone or expanded? What hours are important to you? What can we be doing differently in order to meet your needs? Look for a survey at the library and online at www.harvardpubliclibrary.org in the next few weeks.
Ginger Kendall is a trustee of the Harvard Public Library.
