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With the economy in the tank, one organization is seeing a nice uptick in business: the Chicago Public Libraries. With less money available to shell out for books, it seems more and more readers are turning to the library for their literature needs with library usage in the system up 30 percent. That includes a 100 percent increase in online hold usage over the last year. Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey said, "People are realizing, 'Why should I buy my books, my CDs -- I can get it free at the library.'" It's worth mentioning that the library is also a great way to get your hands on some terrific books that are now out of print, like the Harold Washington bio, Fire on the Prairie. [WBBM]
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And the city has responded with hiring more library staff, right?
And I'm sure you'd be willing to increase your tax burden to pay for more library staff, right?
Absolutely I would be willing to pay more in taxes. And I don't consider funding libraries as a "burden."
My point mostly was the WBBM story -- and the very similar Sun-Times story -- were little more than rewritings of a press release from friend-of-Daley Mary Dempsey. I believe there is a hiring freeze at CPL, and most if not all libraries are woefully understaffed -- especially given the increase in library usage.
The CPL does have a hiring freeze as do most city departments. They have not filled any vacancies that have occurred since the hiring freeze went into effect. Also, they will be losing more staff with the impending round of lay offs.
Library usage is through the roof, yet there are fewer and fewer people to handle the volume. This is one area of city government that is not bloated. Branches are suffering from chronic understaffing.
Add to that the fact that because of the residency requirement CPL staff have to live in the city and yet can be assigned anywhere from Rogers Park to West Pullman. The older generation of librarians (boomers) aren't retiring either.
As for the tax burden, consider that libraries offer
-Access to literally any book for no cost (through inter library loan you can get ANYTHING)
-Free computer/wi-fi
-Cooling centers
-Programming for kids through seniors
All that and Mary Dempsey has been expanding branches into neighborhoods the NEED libraries. Her administration has been lauded throughout the library community as one of the most successful and efficient large metro operations.
If the average tax payers burden for library services was doubled, it would go from about .1187% to 0.237%. For someone earning 40K a year that comes to around 95 dollars a year. Right now it's 47 bucks a year. About 12 cents a day.
Oh the humanity.
Exactly.
CPL is already gravely understaffed and constantly shifting it's workers around in an attempt to keep up now.
But on July 15, they're planning on laying off 120 more workers; most of them are pages.
Pages are the people to organize ALL the shelves and media, process the holds, and even sometimes work the circulation desk along with the clerks.
If you appreciate the services the library provides, I hope people will call their alderman and complain for the city not to go through with the cuts because the library is basically not going to be able to function with only about a quarter of the needed staff at one position.
maybe it's not so much a question of increasing anyone's tax burden as it is a question of how the city distributes the funds it already has