We Will Lose Libraries to COVID-19 via Medium.com

#VoteLibraries

We Will Lose Libraries to COVID-19

Medium.com: 4.16.2020 by Kate Tkacik Sweeney

Your local public library is likely tied, inextricably, to your local economy. Most public libraries in the United States are paid for by some combination of sales and property tax. As spending halts, so does financial support for the library. We’re already seeing sweeping cuts to local administrations, laying off or furloughing hundreds of workers, library workers along with them. This isn’t false hype or hysteria. It’s happening. It will get worse.

Publicly funded libraries were already facing an uphill battle. Over the past decade, voter support for libraries has tanked. Even as the library is generally perceived favorably, increasing anti-tax sentiment undermines the library’s ability to expand, or even exist.

Every day of quarantine reinforces new or different habits. Active library users may find new ways to get resources or learn. The break in continuity, this possible behavior change, paired with loss of tax and voter support, will be catastrophic.

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Is it certain libraries will close? Yes, for some. But there are simple actions every citizen can take to try to ensure their library remains. Just like any other cause, the library needs your action and your advocacy. Being a user of the library is wonderful — even commendable — but there is not clear data to suggest that use of a library correlates to financial support of the library (really!). So this is an ask of you: will you be a library advocate? Will you support library workers? Will you be a library voter? If yes, then here’s what’s next:

Email your state and national representatives, and tell them you care about your library and library workers, and you recognize your library’s importance to your community.

Research your local library to understand who your local library officials are — could be your city council or a specific elected politician. Write to them. Tell them you care about your library.

Engage with your local library on social media. Tweet them up, re-post them on Facebook. Get the library in front of your social networks.

Now find a friend and get them to do all of the above, too.

If you have the resources, consider a donation to EveryLibrary*. EveryLibrary is the first and only 501c4 action organization dedicated to helping libraries win at the ballot.  READ MORE ➤➤

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Library / Literacy Funding

2018

From Awareness to Funding: Voter Perceptions and Support of Public Libraries in 2018, OCLC

2017
Library & Literacy Funding Chart: FY 2017 -by President, House, and Senate, ALA (excel file)

2011
Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study, ALA
2008
From Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in America, OCLC
2007
Worth Their Weight: Assessment . . . Library Valuation, Americans for Libraries Council

Return On Investment – ROI

2019: Library Funding Map, EveryLibrary

Economic Impact of Public Libraries (various ROIs), WI Dept Public Instruction
Libraries Matter: Impact Research: Bibliography, ALA
Public Libraries – A Wise Investment - Library Research Service