Budget Cuts, Networking & the Titanic

Check out this article from the Utne Reader from last summer:

A Library Renaissance: Despite Higher Demand and Less Money, Libraries are Stepping Up

It seems that budget cuts are happening everywhere. Places you might normally think of as being in pretty good shape:

>Seattle

>Southern California

>Boston

And many other places are taking drastic measures, as well: cutting hours, reducing operating budgets, furlough days, etc. Some are even cutting staff.

Libraries run on money, just like all other enterprises. In an economy such as ours continues to be, libraries are not immune to the difficulties that low tax revenue and budget cuts entail. Libraries, however, have an advantage over many other types of government and, indeed, most private enterprises. That advantage is networking.

When police or fire or sewerage and drainage departments suffer budget cuts--and I use the word "suffer" on purpose--they have a hard time simply calling a city 50 miles away and asking to borrow a salt truck or taser gun. It does happen, yes, but the limits of geography apply. The Chippewa Falls Fire Department contracts with the state to handle hazardous material accident cleanup in nearby communities, for instance.

But libraries everywhere, by the very nature of their operational structure, have ALWAYS shared resources and have done so eagerly and usually pretty quietly. The State of Wisconsin, unlike many states, even has a formal system whereby municipalities are reimbursed for the library service they offer to other counties and municipalities, including those municipalities within their own county (provided those towns/cities don't have libraries). The law says that only 70% of the actual cost of the service needs to be covered, but the rest has theoretically been absorbed by state revenue sharing. 2011-2012 is going to be a tough year though, so that theory is probably out the window. But I digress.

Budget cuts make life difficult for all government services, libraries included, but it is a point of pride among library professionals that, in this field, the big naturally reach out to help the small and the small don't hesitate to ask for help.

In an economy/budget cycle like this, I think of the natural networking tendency of libraries like shipwreck survivors sharing body heat in frigid water: they know they have to huddle together to survive and know that a few may not make it, but the closer they hug each other, the better the chance they have to survive.

Here's hoping the water warms up, though. Because even a cluster of fifty will all freeze to death unless help comes. And just now, the horizon is unbroken by any approaching ship.