Do Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Library Reprieves Herald More Good News?

June 15, 2011

Officials in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) Schools and the Mecklenburg County Commission have loosened their purse strings just enough to enable school libraries to remain staffed for the next academic year and the long-embattled Charlotte Mecklenburg Library to expand service hours at its six regional libraries from 37 to 54 per week.

The day after Mecklenburg County commissioners added $26 million to the school district’s FY2011–2012 budget, the school board rescinded 570 of the 739 layoff notices sent out last month, including notices to several dozen media specialists. The June 9 action reversed orders to principals that they reduce spending by eliminating one of three posts: their school’s media specialist, counselor, or literacy facilitator, Gloria Miller told American Libraries. She added that 25 media specialists were being retained for the summer to facilitate the transfer of media-center collections in several schools that were being reorganized.

The news is undoubtedly heartening to blogger Pamela Grundy, whose May 20 post at Seen from the ’Rock was nothing short of a love letter to Shamrock Gardens Elementary School librarian Margaret Hollar, who was among those receiving a layoff notice.  Hollar’s reinstatement means that she will be serving this fall in a space she had won a Target Corporation Heart of America READesign grant to have renovated.

For Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, the $2-million increase in its FY2012 budget was hard-fought. The sum is exactly the amount that a report issued last fall by the Future of the Library Task Force had recommended to maintain the pared-down system’s economic sustainability; the 24-branch system was forced to close three branches in May 2010.

Too many to mention

Unfortunately, libraries of all types continue to struggle for survival, let alone funding to provide full service to their constituencies. Among the upcoming showdowns:

A grassroots groundswell for Troy (Mich.) Public Library, which has been slated to close altogether several times over the past two years, has prompted the municipality to try for a fourth time to pass an operating millage. A special election will be held August 2 ballot.

The fiscal jury is also out for Oakland (Calif.) Public Library, where city officials seem determined to close 14 of its 17 branches. In response, library advocates are inundating city council members with letters, emails, and phone calls in its 14 Branches in 14 Days campaign. The final budget is slated for passage June 21.

A June 22 vote by the supervisors of Siskiyou County, California, will decide whether they will set aside enough money to keep four of the Siskiyou County Library’s 11 branches open for six months as residents continue their two-year quest to find stable funding sources. The doomsday scenario is a repeat of a cliffhanger the county library endured last year.

RELATED ARTICLES:

wordpress-logo-300x300.jpg

WordPress as a Library CMS

Free and open source technology to enhance your library’s web presence



Dead Trees We Have Known

For some, our bark was better than our bytes