MOUNT VERNON — There’s an old saying about the value of libraries: “Libraries will get you through times of no money a lot better than money will get you through times of no libraries.”
John Chidester, director of the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, has seen first-hand for 35 years how central a library can be to a community, but he said it isn’t easy to meet those community needs when economic difficulties tempt lawmakers into singling out library funding for cuts and freezes.
“It’s been a tough act to maintain our services, our materials, and so forth for seven long years with the same raw dollar amount while everything else goes up,” said Chidester.
According to Chidester, 85 percent of his operating budget comes from the state’s Library and Local Government Support Fund, which was created in 1983. At that point, the law directed 6.3 percent of the state’s personal income tax revenue to the fund, but the fund has subsequently been weakened by income tax rollbacks, rate cuts, redirection of funds and temporary freezes which have frequently been extended.
With the new year, a revised funding formula has been put in place by lawmakers, giving the LLGSF 2.2 percent of all state tax revenues, according to the Ohio Library Council. Chidester said the end result is that Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County has received roughly the same amount it would have received if the old funding system were still in place and still subject to the freeze.
“It was about $12,000 more than the freeze amount would have been, and that’s almost nothing in a budget of around $2 million a year,” Chidester said.
While funding has remained stalled at old levels, the cost of materials, books and utilities keeps climbing higher. Over the last seven years, the library has been forced to cut over 10 percent of its work force by attrition. This means, said Chidester, that service to the public dwindles as fewer and fewer people are left to do the work. Also, hours have been scaled back as an additional economy, both in Mount Vernon and at the branches in Fredericktown, Danville and Gambier.
As the economy sags, said Chidester, members of the public turn more and more to the library for items they can no longer afford to buy or rent themselves. This creates a double strain on libraries already stretched thin from funding shortfalls.
“My materials budget is less than half what it was in 2003,” Chidester said.
This, he said, means that fewer books, magazines and audio-visual materials are being bought, at a time when more people are clamoring for them. To make ends meet, the library has taken to buying some materials used, and renting items that are likely to be highly popular for only a short period of time.
Another 10 percent of library funding comes from a local library levy. That levy, however, is pegged to residences. Thus, said Chidester, in a time when there is little new residential development, those funds do not increase enough to offset the rise of inflation.
But Chidester said the new funding could prove to be a light at the end of the tunnel, at least if lawmakers keep their hands out of the cookie jar.
“At least now, unless the legislature pulls another fast one on us, the freeze is off,” Chidester said. He added that the library will be able to maintain its service to the community if its funding is simply left alone to ebb and flow with the general economy, instead of being singled out for cuts while other state budget areas remain or increase.
These funding issues loom large, Chidester said, especially when considering that the library is reaching an age where maintenance becomes a prominent consideration. The 1951 building of the main branch on Mulberry Street was gutted, renovated and expanded in 1988-89, but that was 20 years ago.
“It’s starting to show its age,” Chidester said.
He said library staff postpones maintenance issues until they have to be addressed. He said that many have pointed out the carpet around the circulation desk no longer looks good, but as long as it isn’t completely worn through, it isn’t likely to be replaced any time soon. Heating and cooling systems have already been tweaked to achieve maximum efficiency from computerized controls.
Chidester said patrons are appreciative of the library, and he hopes lawmakers will keep supporting the system enough for it to remain acclaimed nationwide.
“The state of Ohio can be very proud,” Chidester said. “It has been No. 1 in library services in the nation for quite a while and is still holding on to that, maybe a little more tenuously than before, but we still are No. 1.”
