[msb-alumni] Is the Wayne County Library system coming to an end
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2015 15:26:57 -0500
BlankInteresting, sounds like the county library may be closing but there is
support to continue the Wayne County Talking Book library. I wonder why the
Michigan Library for the Blind can't take over the Wayne County Braille and
Talking Book library.
Steve
Is the Wayne County Library system coming to an end? The Wayne County
Library system has served communities in metro Detroit since 1920, but its
future is in doubt. A system that served 28 cities and townships in 1981 now
serves only two municipalities and the Wayne County Braille and Talking Book
Library. The two communities Ecorse and Taylor have discussed the
possibility of pulling out, said county library director Maria McCarville.
Five library systems, several serving multiple communities, left in 2014
River Rouge, Lincoln Park, Allen Park, Melvindale and Trenton. Southgate,
Romulus, Inkster and Belleville all left in 2010 or 2011. The decision to
leave the county system was not a decision to end library service for
residents but rather a choice to go independent. Wayne County Commissioner
Tim Killeen, an advocate of maintaining the Wayne County Braille and Talking
Book Library, formerly known as the Library for the Blind, summed up the
reason so many libraries have broken away. "A lot of communities have
decided they can do it on their own cheaper," Killeen said. In 2012, revenue
for the county system stood at $4.4 million, with operating expenditures of
$3.3 million and capital expenditures of $431,450, but that was before the
most recent departures. McCarville described the effect on the county budget
as revenue neutral. The county system handles staffing, including human
resources and employee background checks, and manages and pays the bills,
although the communities still pay back what the county system pays. Each
community also determines and pays for its own level of service, which
explains why the Taylor Community Library is open seven days a week and the
Ecorse Public Library is open only Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Officials in Taylor and Ecorse did not return requests for comment. Joyce
Farkas, director of the Southgate Veterans Memorial Library, said Southgate
can manage library services on its own and no longer needs to pay for the
county's financial oversight. She estimated the costs for the services
provided by Wayne County to her library at $90,000 per year. "Overhead cost
for Wayne County kept going up," Farkas said. "It still costs money to
handle things, just not as much. Francine Sanak, director of the Trenton
Veterans Memorial Library, said that, although cost has been the main focus,
other factors were at work. The Trenton library, which also serves Grosse
Ile, Brownstown Township and Woodhaven, was the most recent library to leave
the county system when it went independent on Oct. 1. If the county's
employees had furlough days or there were layoffs at the county level, the
library would be affected. "The city never asked for furlough days, but we
got furlough days (at the library) anyhow," she said, also noting that under
union contracts, people unfamiliar with library work or Trenton could have
gotten bumped to her library in place of her staff when there were layoffs.
"We're all city employees now. We're not unionized, we're not under the
county's plan," Sanak said. "With the county, there were more layers of
administration. It's a little bit more direct this way. The disintegration
of the Wayne County Library system, one of 17 county systems in the state,
has not happened in a vacuum. The creation of a statewide library material
loan system MelCat and other collaborative programs have undercut the
benefits of a large centralized county system, and life in metro Detroit has
changed significantly in recent decades. When the county system was
established, it helped provide services to communities that did not have
libraries. The system, now based in Westland, was noted as a pioneer for
many years. A 1969 Free Press article described it as "one of America's most
streamlined libraries. The article also mentioned the former library
headquarters on Trumbull in Detroit, a "romantic old mansion" that James G.
Scripps had built for his daughter around 1850. The immediate future for the
system and its top librarian is unclear. McCarville, an appointee of the
Robert Ficano administration earning $87,875 per year, began her career with
the county system as a part-time children's librarian in River Rouge 18
years ago and worked her way up to county librarian four years ago. She has
met with the transition team for incoming County Executive Warren Evans and
has stressed the importance of the Wayne County Braille and Talking Book
Library. "It's a wonderful program," she said. "That's the one that's
nearest and dearest to my heart. Killeen offered a similar assessment. "I
think the folks we're serving really need the local service," he said,
noting that many of the users are a particularly vulnerable portion of
society. "We do it locally, we do it much more hands-on, and this is such an
essential service for folks. As chair of the commission's Health and Human
Services Committee, he said he has fought efforts in recent years to cut
county funding. McCarville noted that there is a level of sadness with what,
from the outside, appears to be the end of a unified county system in place
for nearly a century. She noted that there are benefits to the county
system, including what she described as the convenience factor of having the
county handle personnel issues and pay the actual invoices. A larger library
system also can provide savings through economies of scale, and McCarville
noted that she can personally advocate on behalf of individual libraries.
But the glue that binds the system together is only as strong as the
libraries that comprise it want it to be. "It's always been voluntary who
wants to be part of the library, just like when they want to leave there's
nothing tying them down," McCarville said. Contact Eric D. Lawrence:
elawrence@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
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