Arkansas, already ranked 50th in librarian pay, may stop state aid to county libraries entirely.
The TeleRead take: Hey, Bill and Hillary, care to speak out on this one? How ironic that the state with the planned $160-million Clinton Library, is fiscally a national follower in librarydom. What a Dogpatchish situation. Yes, we know the Clinton library isn’t really a direct competitor to funds for county libraries in Arkansas. Still, the symbolism can’t escape us. On to the real perps–the politicians running the state now. Republican Governor Mike Huckabee, whose Web site brags about his “priority in making meaningful contributions to the lives of families and children in the state of Arkansas,” should work with the legislature to straighten out this mess, pronto.
We know times are tough, but Arkansas will aggravate the famous “savage inequalities” if the proposed cuts come about. Here’s another illustration for the need for a well-stocked national digital library system that would expand the range of books available to rich and poor.
Keep in mind that books by themselves are not enough, that we need librarians to acquire and organize books and other items and guide users through collections, not to mention all the community-oriented services that libraries provide. Still, whatever the reasons in the inefficient paper world, the typical library system is able to spend just a fraction of its budget on books, and TeleRead could help, especially with cash-strapped libraries such as Arkansas’s. The more material available from a national collection, the wider the range of items–and the more money left over for local services.
What’s more, TeleRead would be a godsend in the important area of family literacy. Remember the slogan: Bring the books home. With thousands of books online for free, parents would be more likely to serve as positive role models for children, especially if local libraries could localize and otherwise customize links to the national collection. Time to take a stand, Hillary?
One other way for both the Clinton and Bush families to aid the causes of literacy and knowledge–yes, we vaguely recall Laura Bush’s occupation and related charities–would be to call for a reversal of the giveaways that Washington has made to the Hollywood interests via anti-child copyright legislation that in the end will jack up costs not only to families directly but also to libraries and schools as institutions. Meanwhile we’ll hope that the Supreme Court can mitigate some of the damage. Don’t think that copyright-extension controversy and the library funding crisis are two entirely separate issues. In the future, as e-book technology improves and distance education grows in importance, the overlap will be even more visible.
