pictured above: the inside of the Phoenix Public Library, Jackson County, Oregon: there was money to build it but not to run the place. (from Medford Mail Tribune.)
As earlier viewers of my blog might already be aware the place I live is the largest county in the United States that doesn't have any public library service. This is because the taxpayers of Jackson County, Oregon, refused to pass a tax levy to fund its 15-branch library system earlier this year because the regular source of funding, a timber-based revenue program in place since the Great Depression, was not renewed by Congress. So Medford, Oregon (Jackson County) has several brand new libraries--some built just this year thanks to a bond measure from a few years back--that were closed in April, 2007.
I've lived in politically conservative, liberal and moderate areas in my life but never in an area that had not one public library. Part of this is, of course, is that the state of Oregon has no sales tax and relies heavily on property tax for revenue.
So any increase in programs--from Law enforcement levies to keeping foreign language courses in high school --goes to the voters as a measure funded solely by a property tax hike. Many libertarian people are dead-set against more taxes, which in the case of a library system is really detrimental to the intellectual growth of young people and giving grown-ups exposure to a variety of cultural and political material. People are left to getting their takes on current events and history by going from radio talk shows, commercial television and the Internet. The fact that there is often little of depth on many stations and sites--and that potentially many people have no access to the Internet anyway--only increases the "dumbing down" of a populace.
When you shut down libraries you not only shut down people from having full access to books, but also a wide variety of periodicals and other material that give people the chance to see life experiences from other perspectives besides their own prejudices and concerns. That, and the fact that a great deal of topical material is not on the Internet due to copyright or lack of bandwidth, is a good reason to keep the libraries open.
But these closures were not just motivated by political ideas. In general, older people and others living on more or less fixed incomes are reluctant to vote to raise a tax on their domiciles. My wife and I have limits to how much we feel we can afford to vote on new residential taxes, although we always support the local school initatives which, thankfully, have libraries for kids, although not as well funded as they probably should be in some areas.
Southern Oregon has, for better and worse, the fifth largest percentage in the USA of older retirees moving into any area (courtesy of near-by California migration.) Many of these people don't seem to have the same impetus to help schools and libraries as they might have when they were younger; their children and grandchildren now live in other states so the closure of a library may not be that important in their minds. At least that's the conclusion I've gathered from anecdotal evidence.
Luckily, the local Oregon politicos sent to Wahington have managed to get Jackson County enough money to open the libraries for at least two years. (No word on the fate of folks up in Grants Pass). And the city of Ashland--home of Southern Oregon University-- has already passed a levy to supplement that funding so our local library will be open for 40 hours a week instead of the 24 we initally allocated. I have to admit that I voted against the Ashland measure as it was originally written because it was designed to open the Ashland library all by itself without the county system being overhauled.
I think the whole county, not just one city, should get behind a comprehensive revenue source for the whole system, and not have just the homeowners in Ashland foot the bill for a library that the other 80 percent of the county citizens could use for free. But most of the citizens of this community, one of the most affluent in the area although not in any way because of our two-income working family, were more generous. (Part of the reason we voted against the measure also was some of the local city council members are a bit flaky with public funds, but that's a blog for another day.)
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the opening of the libraries all over the county, and to a real long-term solution so Southern Oregon doesn't continue with the odious distinction of being an area where you can't get a new book to look at unless you can get to Barnes and Noble and have $29.95 bucks to spend.
For more info:
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070919/NEWS/709190317
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