Louisville Library Pins Upgrade Hopes on Stimulus Funds

Louisville Library Pins Upgrade Hopes on Stimulus Funds

More than a year after the resounding defeat of a $200-million library bond issue to expand the facilities and services of the Louisville (Ky.) Free Public Library, city and library officials have unveiled a scaled-down $120-million plan to revitalize the library system over more than a decade.

The hitch is financing, and Mayor Jerry Abramson has met with President-Elect Barack Obama regarding an initial $8.4 million to jump-start system improvements. “The first year’s projects to renovate historic libraries in the oldest parts of the city comprise our proposal for federal economic recovery dollars,” LFPL Director Craig Buthod told American Libraries. Noting that the seven “shovel-ready” projects are estimated to create “390 construction jobs in the first 12 months,” he added, “Washington will be looking for exactly that model when the legislation is passed by Congress later this month.”

Buthod presented the revised plan December 30 to a subcommittee of the city council, Coincidentally, the presentation took place the day after Obama included libraries on the CBS-TV program Face the Nation among the infrastructure projects that stimulus funding could help to “lay the foundation for the future of our economy.” On January 4, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) mentioned libraries in the context of an economic stimulus package on the NBC-TV program Meet the Press and ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, respectively.

Released in December, the updated master plan (PDF file) still calls for the creation of three new regional facilities in suburban Louisville to “achieve parity access between urban and suburban areas” and ensure that 90% of the Jefferson County service population lives within five miles of a library. Additionally, it calls for the construction of a new Shively/Pleasure Ridge Park branch and a permanent Middletown facility to replace the borrowed space it has outgrown.

Another 11 branches would be refurbished or expanded, as needed, and the Main Library would undergo a major renovation that would be completed in stages over a decade and cost $44.4 million—considerably less than the $64-million expansion-and-replacement budget proposed in a December 2002 master plan; it was the occupational-tax hike to fund that plan that voters rejected last year.

Emphasizing LFPL’s ranking 50–80 points lower than Kentucky’s other county library systems in such measures as square feet of library space, collection size, circulation, and budget per capita, the report argues: “At a time when the knowledge economy represents the best opportunity for coming generations, education is a community asset worthy of significant investment.”

The updated proposal calls for work to continue through 2020, although Buthod told AL, “We’re confident that economic recovery will allow the city to begin funding capital projects again at least by the 2010–11 fiscal year.” However, other than funds already set aside for a first-ever Newburg branch, which is already under construction, it is unclear where the rest of the funding would come from and not addressed in the updated proposal—particularly ironic given an FY2009 budget shortfall that forced the elimination of Sunday service systemwide as of December 14 and closings on December 26, January 2, April 3, and May 1.

Although there seems to be no immediate solution to the cash crunch, the University of Louisville officials and Mayor Jerry Abramson held a news briefing on campus January 5 to remind community residents of the academic library’s longstanding open-door policy for members of the public seven days a week as well as free borrowing privileges for patrons 18 and older. “In these tight budget times, it’s important that we work with our local government for the benefit of our citizens,” UL President James Ramsey stated. “Through efficient use of our resources, we can continue to offer outstanding library service to our campus and the entire community seven days a week.”

The full Metro Council is scheduled to take up the capital-improvement proposal early in the new year.

Posted on January 5, 2009; modified January 6, 2009. Discuss.