Keeping those books coming
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| Selby Township Library Director Marcia Broady (left) and assistant director Donna Dabler display some of the books and other materials that are ready to be shipped off. The library materials were borrowed through the Illinois Library Systems from a variety of libraries in Illinois, with the entire expense picked up by the ILS. Funding for ILS was frozen until last week, when some of the funding was released following an e-mail campaign. (BCR photo/Barb Kromphardt) |
Area residents who rely on their local libraries for getting books and other materials from across the state can thank librarians for their efforts last week.
Local librarians participated in an online effort Wednesday to save some library services that were on the financial chopping block. E-mails were flying fast and furious as librarians across the state tried to marshal support for an e-mail effort to provide funding for the regional Illinois Library Systems (ILS). The sharing of resources between Illinois libraries depends on the delivery service coordinated by ILS, and funding for the ILS comes in the form of an annual grant from the Illinois General Assembly.
Donna Dabler, assistant director of the Selby Township Library District, sent out an e-mail about how libraries are more important than ever.
“Having used libraries, worked in libraries and sat on a library board, I have seen in the past and now in the current economy the benefits that our patrons and residents in the Selby Township Library District have here in DePue and are using the library more,” she wrote. “Those that have never used the library are coming in to use the services the library offers them.”
Dabler also forwarded an e-mail she had received from Judy Hutchinson, administrative services manager of the Prairie Area Library System, which services more than 90 percent of Bureau County.
Hutchinson wrote that PALS and the other Illinois Regional Library Systems were unfunded. No money had been received from the state for the fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2009.
“We need members and your users to help us with an e-mail campaign!” Hutchinson wrote.
Hutchinson asked the librarians to help with an e-mail campaign on Wednesday to Comptroller Dan Hynes and Gov. Pat Quinn.
“Our goal is 3,000 e-mails each to Comptroller Hynes and Governor Quinn,” she wrote. “This has worked for library funding issues in other states, and it can work here, too.”
The campaign was a success.
According to a press release issued Monday, 10,000 library fans sent more than 20,000 e-mails to the offices of Quinn and Hynes to release the funds for ILS. According to the release, the online rally began on Wednesday, and by Friday morning, most of the systems had reported receiving a partial payment from the state.
On Monday, Hutchinson said the annual appropriation for ILS is $15,353,148 of which PALS receives $2,275,533.
“We were slated to received our first payment in August 2009 but just received the first payment (approximately 35 percent of our funding) Thursday,” Hutchinson said.
Selby Township Library Director Marcia Broady said libraries in rural areas like hers rely on PALS for its support in a variety of areas, including the interlibrary loans. Of the 6.5 million items handled by PALS last year, about 70 items per month find their way to the DePue library. Broady said the library usually orders items twice a week and receives items two or three times a week through the mail, all paid for by PALS.
“Our budget would not allow for us to house a large enough collection to meet all the needs of our readers because, obviously, there’s new things coming out all the time,” she said. “Because of our interlibrary loan, we have access to hundreds of thousands of books that we obviously don’t have the room or the money to provide.”
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