Editorial: Too many books, too little money

Is it the fear and shock caused by declining stock market figures and increasing unemployment numbers that makes me think of cancer and obesity when I hear the words growth and expansion?

For after nearly a generation of unusual growth and expansion, we now witness so much debt and waste, neglect and strife, both around the world and within our own community.

Maybe my thoughts connect in this way because I fear for the future, knowing that those younger than our Boomer generation have grown up rarely hearing the mantras that informed our household budgets:

We can’t afford it

You’ll have to work for it

Wait until the end of the month and see if we have the money.

Last weekend I indulged myself  “wasting” time watching the old movie, “I Remember Mama.” While I can easily critique its caricature-like actors, and its lack of a coherent plot, a sense of comfort, safety and pride was conveyed as “Mama” and her family sat at the kitchen table in pre-hippie (pre-earthquake!) San Francisco, counting out the coins (not bills) needed to provide for the family’s expenses to the end of the week, without “going to the bank.”

The demands on Mama’s budget were minimal necessities and gravely-considered investments, not greed-driven luxuries: new soles for shoes, groceries, a high school education. Mama’s new winter coat never made it through the budget cuts.

Our budgeting process is certainly more complex than in those days, on both the revenue and the expenditure sides. We have to balance spending among present necessities and investment for the future, while still keeping an eye on paying down the debt we’ve already incurred.

Now the Orcas Island community faces a “growth” proposition, initiated by public library benefactors, that challenges us on all three of those components of healthy budgeting.

The capital outlay (upfront costs) to expand the library will be funded by the donors, and the consequent operations funds will come from the public, who make use of the library. That’s the plan.

It’s true the library is usually packed with users of all ages. It’s true the amount of taxes per household to fund library operations may be minimal, around $10 per year. And it’s true that the library is a “Third Place” or valuable gathering spot, neither work nor home, where people can explore both personal and community interests.

But there are three considerations where the library’s obligation, stated last year, — to provide equitable access, intellectual freedom and  learning support for all in the community  – is not served by an expansion of the library building:

1)      The inability of many islanders to provide for the necessities of today outweigh the investment in the future that they could make to expanded library operations.

2)      The expansion is chiefly for more books, or things, that take up space, rather than for more staff, services or programs that serve the tax-paying public.

3)      The Orcas Community takes pride in its collaborative ethic: partnerships between government, private, business, non-profit organizations abound.

It is a bitter pill for a booklover to swallow, but the truth is, not all books are created equal. If I were a librarian, it would be the hardest task to decide which books should be evicted from the shelves. However, that would be only one of my professional tasks. Go to the library’s web page (www.orcaslibrary.org)  to see the many services it offers, from job searches to family storytimes to free computer classes, in addition to maintaining the library and inter-library catalogs.

After over 50 years of library patron experience, it is hard to say where the  Orcas Island library is lacking: its physical presence is warm, clean, well-lit and comfortable; the staff is welcoming and capable; volunteers regularly assist, programs and meetings populate its conference room; exhibits highlight special interests; and its technological capabilities are up-to-date.

I don’t like to “stifle” the library – it is one of the community linchpins, as much as Orcas Center or Island Market; it connects us to the world at hand and the world afar. Yet it appears that, in light of the greater economic picture and systems already in place, the library and the community are better served by strengthening existing partnerships and trimming excess in its collections than in expanding their present building.

In the case of the library, now is the time to say, “Wait until we see if we’ll have enough money.”

To help form your opinion, go to the library’s forum on this issue, https://www.orcaslibraryfuture.org/.