Letter for the Tuscaloosa Public Library.
Readers,
Below is a copy of a recent letter I wrote to our local city council members and the Tuscaloosa Public Library Board.
Thanks for reading. Support your local public library.
Dear City Council Members of Tuscaloosa, Northport, and the Tuscaloosa Public Library Board of Trustees,
I am writing to you because of the recent news about the Tuscaloosa Public Library budget cuts first reported over a week ago.
Public libraries, such as those in Tuscaloosa, hold a unique and rare place in America, particularly in Alabama."The two branches that will be remaining in Tuscaloosa — the Weaver Bolden and Main Branch — are part of approximately 16,000 library buildings, 9,000 total public libraries systems in the nation. These spaces, especially indoor spaces, are rare because they are one of the few public spaces where a citizen isn’t required or obligated or encouraged to spend money. You don’t need money to participate in the space.
Libraries are often calm spaces, safe, and provide room for ideas, wonder, transformative escape and elastic growing. Or they provide a spot for stability — maintaining an equilibrium. It’s where minds open and where relationships can grow. It’s where others can rest. Libraries democratize access to information, entertainment, and calmness. The community spends time here.
Consider what the public library does:
In Tuscaloosa, there is a well-established center of knowledge located within the college campus. Consider what TPL provides to all those who can’t access that knowledge center. Not everyone can drive and park on campus, or pay to park. Also consider the cultural barriers for those who haven’t spent a lot of time on a campus, or who come from families and circumstance that aren’t familiar with a college of UA’s size. Consider how hard it might be to navigate the well-trodden systems built if you’re (for example) a parent, economically challenged, or elderly. Just imagine the logistics of parking and walking from the parking deck to Gorgas. In contrast, the TPL libraries are much more accessible for a wider set of people.
On average, approximately 3,500 users accessed the Overdrive/Libby online resources every month. This means a few thousand patrons will lose access to this popular online resource. Also consider: How many of those users are disabled or cannot easily travel to the physical library? Where the online resource is their only access point to library resources.
As you’re more than likely aware, the library provides programming. Programming for not just summer reading (that will be reduced from eight weeks to four), but in an array of ways: seed libraries, knitting groups, lunch and learns; educational talks; author readings; classes on how to use computers and the internet; teen clubs; and dozens of more iterations.
The library provides materials to the public for free. It provides access to the internet. It’s a portal for research. It’s a place where you can register to vote. It’s a zone for reading material that provide knowledge, joy, at the pace of a physical, analog object. A library encourages being off screen and engaging with the world while at the same time encouraging necessary skills of getting onscreen. A library helps people understand and cope with living in the world.
Consider what a public library can do:
Each of the above examples can be amplified.
The public library should provide attractive jobs for sustainable pay. Librarians serve the community in dozens of ways. They do way more than just shelve books. And like all citizen-service jobs such as teachers, social workers, aids, childcare organizers, elderly care employees, and many more, librarians should be taken care of and feel valued. From Patch reporting, pay raises have gone up in recent years, but the library is still understaffed — and has lost employees to the University, according to the reporting. Why not up the budget? Rather than cut it? We should strive to up the market value of public librarian and set a standard. Right here in Tuscaloosa.
Pay more, provide more. Each of these citizens-service jobs should allow access to a middle-class life and longterm sustainability. According to the U.S Labor Bureau of Statistics, the average pay is around $61,000 a year for a librarian. For that matter, the average income of individuals in Alabama is $57,000. Why doesn’t the city set the standard with a librarian job, and other citizen-serving jobs? Make it more attractive, bring in better talent. This is one way to create an infrastructure of care: Provide great incentive for a person work in a citizen-provider space, and the citizens who use and experience these spaces experience better care. People see this, they move here, boost the economy, and feel taken cared for.
The average librarian may live above the poverty threshold ($14,880 for an individual and $29,950 for a family of four). But like many citizen-serving jobs, even if you hover above the poverty line, one accident, one broke-down car, a tree falling into roof, a late medical bill, or sick family member can send an individual into poverty. They have to live with that anxiety that one wrong turn will send them below the line. When someone lives with that anxiety, they tend to live with a scarcity mindset and wait for something to go wrong. It’s a very difficult way to live.
It’s highly contested, but financial happiness and well being usually sync up when salaries reach above $75k. We should pay public librarians and the staff who maintain the buildings a living wage and give them an opportunity at such fulfillment.
Often overlooked, libraries can function as a source of healthcare. It’s a civic building and service that is well positioned to elevate population health. It can (and have in some states and cities) provide direct healthcare services, health information, and be a link to healthcare service. A library can be a resource for addiction, food scarcity, disaster relief, computer-training for healthcare providers, and so much more. According to the CDC, librarians and partners often link social and health services to patrons. The library is a bridge.
Lastly libraries should offer robust programming and materials. In the age of book bans, it’s beyond important that TPL maintain and sustains a wide-range of materials. Libraries should be a haven for all ideas and life experiences. Everyone should be able to see themselves at the library, and see the lives and worlds they don’t experience, too. A library should open a mind, not close it.
It should be a beacon of educational and art programming for children and teenagers. Libraries should provide thousands of books and access to online resources. They should be research centers and discovery zones. Offering a wide range of subjects from politics, art, sexuality, business, cooking, sociology, memoirs & biographies, fiction, poetry, and so, so much more. Libraries need a bonanza of books for all ages and be a jewel of diversity. In just the last year I myself have encountered such wide titles such as Alison Bechdel’s Fun House; Max Chafkin’s book on Peter Thiel; Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House; Jennifer Haigh’s Mercy Street. Every book has the potential to change a mind, help it get through some hours, or transport it, or teach the person about the world.
I hope you can agree with the above statements. I understand you all needed to dip into a reserve fund, and there had been past cuts (and found past solutions). I know a roof needed to be repaired earlier this year. It’s tough to find money for citizen serving institutions such as TPL.
In the coming weeks, please find a funding solution, and consider the longterm need for a sustainable and robust library. I would be willing to pay more in taxes to support the continued existence of these rare spaces. Please consider what’s between the four walls and underneath the roof of the library.
Thank you so much for your time.
Sincerely, Tucker Legerski
Sources
Understanding The Tuscaloosa Public Library's Budget Crisis (Ryan Philips/Patch)
United States Census Bureau Poverty Threshold.
Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year (PNAS Journal/2021) and Dan Gilbert on money and happiness.
Public libraries: A community-level resource to advance population healthSome other science and health stuff. (Journal of Community Health/2019)
The Librarians are not okay (Culture Study/Anne Helen Petersen)