In search of a new vision
and Andrew Scot Bolsinger
Community-wide concern over the fate of the Ashland library spilled out of the building and spread quietly through the city this week. E-mail exchanges, online posts and letters of concern circulated, including a rumor that the Ashland library would close in February.
Barring a change in Jackson County's bleak financial forecast, all libraries will close sometime this spring, but the February rumors are unsubstantiated, according to retiring Jackson County Library Director Ronnie Budge.
Budge sent a fax to Ashland Public Library staff on Tuesday. In it, she said that contrary to rumors, county officials have not decided on a closing date for the library.
Budge said she would let library staff know when a closure date is chosen.
The rumors were enough to spur one family to hold a spontaneous fundraiser on Ashland's Plaza on Tuesday afternoon. Marilyn and Neil Stewart, brought their 9-year-old twins, William and Dannae, and the family dog Shasta to the Plaza to hold a bake sale, after learning the library's days are numbered.
The family sold mistletoe in a largely symbolic and heartfelt gesture to help raise awareness. Two real estate agents and a handful of pedestrians dropped donations in the jar, before the Stewart's returned to the library for a children's storytelling event. The emotional support for the library makes certain that the Stewart's impromptu fundraiser will be the first of many such public displays as the library's fate is determined in the coming months.
Passionate supporters
These passionate supporters argue that if the Rogue Valley community is a wagon wheel, then our own Ashland library is a significant part of the hub. Supporters — now more vocal than ever with news that the Jackson County Commissioners plan to close all 15 Valley libraries this spring — argue this place is a vital part of our quality of life. Beyond the financial obligations of paved streets, police officers, schools and other basic staples of society, libraries contribute to the civic, cultural and educational life of the community, some said.
Yet, voters disagreed, refusing this past November to pass a levy that would assure operational funds for the library system. How do we understand the outcome of this past election? Why would voters reject an appeal for sustaining funds for what many argue is an invaluable resource?
True, a majority of Ashland and Talent voters supported the failed operating levy. But simple economics played a significant factor. Some simply believe taxation has imposed to high a cost, no matter what the value of the institution. Others likely down played the significance of the vote.
"There were those," said Anne Billeter, children's, young adult, and south region manager, "who may have believed that the funds would and could be found elsewhere, and the County Commissioners simply would not close libraries."
Underlying the issue of funding is, perhaps, a more subtle and often unexpressed concern: Are libraries still relevant in this electronic, Internet age?
Wide highway
Increasingly, we are a society that is less and less dependent on paper and ink for our information. The information highway is no longer a narrow roadway with rest stops at card catalogues organized by the Dewey Decimal system.
It's not called the World-Wide Web for nothing.
Today, it is endless links that move laser-like around the world and back. The information age is being redefined and morphed at an ever accelerating pace, all at the touch of a keyboard. Hit the onramp with the help of mighty search engines such as Google or Yahoo (to name just a few), play among the wikis, and visit countless Web sites where endless streams of linked information are instantly available: this is the future.
Yet library staff argue that this institution is not anachronistic, or simply warehouses that store the past and offer little for the future. Making that case to the taxpayers is the challenge that lie ahead.
"A library is a community center," Billeter said, "one where locals can gather and discuss issues and do more than access information. Everything cannot be found on the Internet."
Further, a significant number of people in any community do not have access to the Internet, can't afford to buy books and magazines and don't own computers.
"Libraries have faced the question of relevance with every new technology: radio, newsmagazines, movies, telephones, television and now the Internet," said John Sexton, young adult librarian for Jackson County. "The Internet is simply another complement to libraries. It allows us to offer, for example, online research tools that would have previously only been available in expensive books. What we offer is free to everyone, which is a fundamental tenet of our democracy: that information should be free and available to everyone. It is free for the common good."
Barring a significant change in the current direction, this "common good" will not be offered as the libraries should close sometime this spring. Library staff are being told to prepare for layoffs and closures, while at the same time trying to figure out how to appeal to voters and recast the vision of the library in the modern age. Taxpayers and elected officials will have to decide if libraries have a rightful place in that hub of the Valley, and thus, find someway to fund their operations.
Some options remain, but nobody is doubting that the future is at best uncertain, at worst, non-existent.
Congress may reverse course and return more than $23 million in federal timber funds (see side bar) to the Valley. Locally, an appeal could be made, once again, to the voters with a ballot measure in May or September, 2007, asking for a property tax to pay for library services. Either of these elections (and any election prior to November 2008) would, according to Billeter, require a double-majority vote.
Little is definite, save one simple question: When asked if the survival of Ashland's library is in jeopardy, Billeter gave an emphatic "Yes."
Tidings staff writer Vickie Aldous and copy editor John Gaffey contributed to this report.
