A Letter From Library Board President Kathleen Pilat
Dear Neighbor,
As you may have heard by now, the Board of Trustees and I announced that we will be putting a referendum question on the ballot in November 2008.
Our library has been experiencing overcrowded conditions for the last several years. The Board along with our creative and flexible staff has worked to maintain services and programs even as we continue to grow beyond our walls. In order to accommodate the need for space we have continuously adjusted the space we have. Higher shelving has been put in place to allow more room for books; seating has been removed to allow space for reference materials and the Program Room has been converted into a Children’s Room. The biggest change was the loss of the Program Room. However, we partnered with several organizations in our communities and have found locations offsite in which to hold programs.
The outpouring of support has been wonderful, yet we are still out of space. Based upon a recent community survey, the majority of the respondents told us we need to improve. It is time to take the next step and expand our collection, our services, our programs and our Library.
We hope we can all do this together.
The Library and the Friends of the Library have been busy, as you know, raising money over the past two years to help fund a library addition. Together we have raised nearly $90,000 through book sales, basket raffles, silent auctions, a golf outing, the Kick-A-Thon, and numerous other events. In addition, the Board has been saving money wherever we can in a special reserve fund to also help pay for an addition. However, in order to build and operate on an ongoing basis, we will need the support of the entire community.
Now our request goes to you. We are working on collecting community input, working with financial advisors and space planners in order to decide what size an addition should be. Our goal is to determine a reasonable request. One that will allow us to grow, but also be considerate of the economic situation we all live in today. We will be sending out updates on this as soon as possible.
Thank you for your continuous support of the Huntley Area Public Library. We look forward to serving you in the rest of 2008 and in the years to come.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Pilat, President
Board of Library Trustees
Comments
Should we be funding a library at all?
You are asking the wrong question. The question is, “Should we be funding a library at all?”
The library is a vestige of the past. It is a remnant of a time when books were expensive, research required rare reference volumes, and personal learning and entertainment was limited to paper?
Today, our schools are well funded and provide extensive research and computer lab resources. Huntley is blessed with a public recreation center and other public meeting venues. Cable and the internet like them or not, provide many learning and entertainment options.
You seem to agree. You are justifying more tax money based on free videos, internet access, public meeting rooms and child care.
You should reconsider your primary mission of promoting literacy and providing reading material. Surely the existing library and its association with the North Suburban Library Service can provide any book that anyone could request.
I would like to see more discussion on the role of and need for the library. Are its expanding services a unique and proper role for the library, or just a way to justify an obsolete institution?
It would be more honest to describe the referendum as a new recreation center that also provides free videos and books.
Why is the Library supported by public funds?
The Huntley Area Public Library District was established by the majority of voters in 1989. By establishing a library, they gave the board the authority to create a property tax, within certain limits. Only about 3 cents of every property tax dollar you pay goes to support the library.
Public libraries have been around for many years. They were established to provide a way for people to pool their resources so that everyone would be able to share in more informational, educational and leisure reading materials because it benefits the community as a whole. Few people would be able to afford all the materials that one library has to offer. At about $20 per item, for 100,000 items (books, magazines, movies, etc.) you would have to spend about $2 million dollars and that doesn’t include the building, furnishings or staff to help you.
Most people do not feel the library is a vestige of the past as usage increases continuously. Since 1999, circulation has increased 11 times over. People use the library for many different reasons, including leisure reading, continuing education, and research through books and through the many data bases the library subscribes to that are not available to individuals. While it is true that students have computers and other resources at school, schools are not open in the evening, on weekends or during the summer. School libraries also do not have materials for pre-schoolers or for adults.
The “meeting room” that has been mentioned would be primarily a space for library programs…from story times that inspire children to love books, to informational programs for adults. Some community groups would probably be able to use it when it wasn’t needed for library programs.
As far as the North Suburban Library System goes, they provide the delivery van and driver that delivers materials to us from other libraries in the system (and delivers some of our materials to other libraries). This is a wonderful service, but we cannot rely on other communities and their libraries to do all the giving of resources and for us to do all the taking.
To see how much money the library could actually save you each visit, please click here to use the Return on Investment Calculator.