Gregory Anderson (left), a 5-year-old Dearborn resident, and his 7-year-old brother, Evan, use the computers in the children’s section of the Henry Ford Centennial Library while their mother, Imelda, supervises their online time.
‘Libraries serve the community. Their resources are integral to a literate society, and their information necessary for a democratic one. Dismantling them will have
far-reaching effects.’
— Library Commissioner
Antonia Straley
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
DEARBORN – Libraries here could face the largest budget cuts in a decade unless users appeal to City Hall, library officials say.
Cuts in nonmandated budget items, including libraries, are being considered by city officials, Library Commission Chairman Marcel Pultorak said recently.
This month the City Council must allocate a larger share of a diminishing city budget for public safety employees – police and firefighters – to maintain voter-mandated staffing levels tied to population as required by the city charter. Nonessential services now must compete for a reduced share of the decreasing budget.
While most residents likely aren’t willing to sacrifice public safety funding for nonessential services, Pultorak said, few library patrons are aware of the full range of services provided by local libraries.
Library computer work stations available for public use with Internet access and Microsoft Office applications have increased from 36 to 104 in the last decade, an increase of 189 percent, Library Director Maryanne Bartles said.
In the last decade, she said, Dearborn library programming has increased by 50 percent, even with a 45 percent reduction in full-time staff. Library cardholders, 87.5 percent of whom are city residents, have increased by 12 percent, and hold requests for materials have increased by 59 percent, while the materials budget decreased by 20.6 percent.
Patrons with library cards can download e-books for loan in a manner similar to the way they borrow hard copy library books, but from a remote location with a valid library card and access codes.
Books on tape, video tapes and DVDs also are available for physical checkout. Library Commissioner Antonia Straley said libraries cannot be replaced by online search tools.
“The Dearborn library system caters to all of our citizens through educational programs, research assistance, entertainment material (and) Internet access,” Straley said, also citing the employment tools and social space provided by city libraries.
Straley said the challenge of the budget situation will be felt across Dearborn, but urged those making those difficult budget cutting decisions to proceed prudently.
“Libraries serve the community,” Straley said. “Their resources are integral to a literate society, and their information necessary for a democratic one. Dismantling them will have far-reaching effects.”
Candyce Ewing Abbatt, a commissioner for almost 15 years, has seen budget cuts throughout her tenure, with the most significant occurring in the last 18 months.
“We have tried everything to save money: use of volunteers, leaving positions open, consolidating programs to the main branch, adjusting hours and the like,” she said. “We are running out of options. If the public does not make its preference for a full-service library, with branches, known to administration loud and clear that the next cuts will be painful and obvious.”
Abbatt added that the additional cuts negatively would impact the quality of life in Dearborn, especially for seniors and young children’s parents.
“My early exposure to the library changed my life in a highly positive way,” Abbatt said. “It would be a shame to deprive our kids of the same opportunity.”
Pultorak said people need to support libraries by using them and by advocating their financial support.
“If you agree that libraries are a good thing for our public, for our democracy and for our society as a whole, then you need to support those libraries,” he said, adding that patrons should communicate their support for libraries to elected officials.
Pultorak acknowledged that maintaining some type of a public library system will be a struggle. That will involve a “changing model,” he said, with different governing bodies cooperating, finding funding resources, meeting the changing technological impact on libraries and determining the role libraries will play in the future.
Libraries have existed for thousands of years, Pultorak said, and e-libraries could work if digital rights management and copyright laws were not too intrusive to that process. He said there is a contention between the freedom of information and the cost of digital media to individual users, and that public libraries have been “the poor man’s university” and a way to encourage people to pursue lifelong learning.
“To me, encouraging learning and how to learn – because by teaching yourself you learn how to learn – is a valuable thing in our society, and I would hate to see that go by the wayside,” Pultorak said. “We’re going to be in decades of change, and finding our way through this we all have to be engaged and involved.”
Library Commission members hope to have some public discussions, focus groups and other interactions with residents “to help us plan the most effective and efficient library services that we can afford to have,” Pultorak said.
For more information about library hours and services go to www.dearbornlibrary.org. For more information about state library funding cuts go to http://milibrariesforthefuture.org.