Certification by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) is key to Harvard residents having access to MBLC-funded research databases heavily used by Bromfield and elementary school students, interlibrary loan privileges, and state aid. Certification also allows continued services to the Harvard schools, which, according to Mary Wilson, Harvard library director, have no accredited librarian on staff. But there’s a catch: to be certified, a town must appropriate public library funding at an amount equal to the average of its appropriations for the preceding three years, plus 2½ percent of that average. For fiscal year 2011, the Municipal Appropriation Requirement (MAR) required for state certification for Harvard is $512,345, and the level-funding budget mandated by the Harvard Finance Committee sets a limit of $498,429 for the library budget, leaving the library $13,916 short.
But the MBLC accepts requests for waivers from the MAR. For fiscal 2010, MBLC applied a liberal waiver policy in light of the economic situation in Massachusetts and granted 24 waivers of the 29 requests submitted; at this writing, the MBLC has not stated its policy for fiscal 2011. If a waiver is not approved, it takes at least one year before a library can regain certification.
During a discussion at last week’s Finance Committee meeting, Town Administrator Tim Bragan pointed out that the budget process is about managing risk among all departments and determining which departments provide least risk, suggesting that the library could request, and would likely receive, a waiver. The Finance Committee must decide whether to stick with its original budget guidelines at the risk of decertification. The committee appears willing to take the risk, but the library trustees do not.
Discussing the matter at this week’s meeting, Finance Committee member Lori Granville said she sees “no rational reason for the state to want to cut our certification for being slightly under the MAR. So when I read this [library budget] narrative and all it talks about is ‘risk, risk, risk’ instead of ‘here’s my idea,’ I am extremely frustrated.” Granville contended that “the worst case is you lose the ability to borrow books for a year,” and that library management is “too focused on protecting their staff and their hours rather than trying to provide a service to the town.”
Residents would oppose library cuts
The town survey results compliled by the Finance Committee in late October, provide some insight into what townspeople want. On the question asking whether residents might like to see library services expanded, 56 residents (52 percent of those who responded to the question) indicated that they would like to see expanded hours. In response to the question on reduction of library services, 42 residents (49 percent of those responding to the question) indicated that they would not like to see library services reduced. (Survey results can be found at http://harvard.ma.us/Pages/HarvardMA_BComm/Finance.)
