Libraries are open in LA

 Look at the magic that happens when you open libraries. Montgomery County, open the libraries.

This is the first band I will be RUNNING to see once I get my second shot: pic.twitter.com/FCBAE2TfvU

— Beck (@BeckTheGirl) May 20, 2021

ELRICH: ‘I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH STAFF RIGHT NOW TO OPEN UP ALL THE LIBRARIES’

 From MyMCMedia, reporter Deirdre Byrne. Full store here. Our question, were library staff laid off during the Pandemic? Yellow highlight my own.

At his weekly media briefing on Wednesday, County Executive Marc Elrich was asked by a reporter about why libraries, recreation centers, and senior centers still have not reopened.

According to Elrich, there are “different issues” for why these places have not fully reopened. “One is you know we don’t we don’t have everybody vaccinated then unless you’re going to start using passports to determine who comes in we’d like to be at a higher level of vaccination before we generally open things up which is why we’ve set our targets based on the percentage of people vaccinated now,” he said.

Elrich said another issue is that the county has not filled vacant positions for libraries and recreation over the last year, so it requires going through a hiring process. “I don’t have enough staff right now to open up all the libraries,” he said.

Libraries Matter. No More Cuts.

The County Council is hearing public testimony this week on the FY12 Budget.  Please make sure to write or email or call to tell the council, Libraries Matter. No More Cuts.

Email the Council here.  Or call, at 240-777-7900.

Here are some talking points:

For all of us, LIBRARIES MATTER.


The library department has taken a greater percentage hit in the budget (30%) and has had its critical functions more devastated than any other agency.

The Library budget was $40.4 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 08, only 0.97% of the county's budget.

The Library budget was $28.9 million in FY 11, a mere 0.6% of the county's budget.

There were 498 library employees in FY 08.


There are 350 library employees in FY 11.

The number of service hours the library provides has been cut 15%.

Materials
The materials budget was once 20% of the library budget. That has been cut in half.

In FY 08, the materials budget was $6,325,150 and served 20 full-service branches, plus the Noyes Library for Young Children, the Correctional Center Library and the Mobile Services Van.

In FY 11, the materials budget is $3,000,000 and serves 18 full-service branches while Olney and Gaithersburg are closed for renovation.

If you continue to cut the budget more, the library system the county built up over decades will be destroyed.

• Branches will close.

• Residents will lose places for community gatherings.
• Materials will not be available.
• Online resources will disappear.
• Library staff will not be on hand to answer reference questions.
• Service to county residents will suffer even more.
• The Libraries will gradually lose their value.

LIBRARIES MATTER. NO MORE CUTS.

Libraries Matter. No More Cuts.

We are posting this courtesy of Friends of the Library.  To join FOL go here.

Libraries Matter. No more cuts.


libraries and schools--a perfect partnership:
school media center closed?
try the local library--once there you’ll find:

homework resources, reading list books, information specialists, computer sign-ups, web searches, online databases, word processing, print outs...

from home you’ll find:
catalogs, online databases, patron placed holds and reserves, book renewals, ask-a-librarian...

summer’s here, school’s out?
try the local library--you’ll find:
summer camp info, vacation reading for parents, summer reading programs for kids, reading list books...

got preschoolers?
try the local library--you’ll find:
infants and toddlers programs, board books, caregiver information, parent resources...

got a high schooler?
try the local library--you’ll find:
reading list books, homework resources, internship and fellowship info, college and scholarship info...

online library?
there’s the mcpl catalog, updated constantly
there’s kidsite, a catalog for younger patrons
there’s cyberteen, the name says it all
databases, collections and more...

want a book that’s not in the system?
try interlibrary loan

want to browse a local non-county system?
go ahead, get a D.C. library card-- we also have reciprocal agreements with eight other Metro-area libraries

looking for input about books from a community of readers?
try readers’ cafe

Support our Public Libraries: Stop the Cuts Part II

Budget discussions are underway now.

Please make sure to voice your support for our wonderful public libraries.  To get your juices flowing, here is a video thanks to Friends of the Library.  And make sure to email the council here; and County Executive here. Now. Do it now.

Support our Public Libraries: Stop the Cuts

In these budget cutting times, it is better to use a scalpel than a hatchet, but it seems like the elected government is intent on taking a hatchet to our public libraries. Please make sure to tell the County government not to cut any more out of our libraries.  Email the council here. Email County Executive Ike Leggett here. Tell them to stop the cuts.  Step up and get involved. Now is the time.


Here are cuts to library resources that were already made LAST year, after those budget cuts in which the libraries were cut to the bone. Or what we thought was the bone:

Academic OneFile - Temporarily unavailable due to budget cuts.
America the Beautiful - No longer available as of 7/1/2010, due to library budget cuts
Baltimore Sun - No longer available as of August 2010, due to library budget cuts.
ConsumerReports.org - Discontinued due to budget cuts.
CQ Global Researcher - No longer available as of October 2010, due to library budget cuts.
CQ Researcher - No longer available as of October 2010, due to library budget cuts.
Encyclopedia Americana - No longer available as of 7/1/2010, due to library budget cuts.
Facts.com World News Digest - No longer available, as of May 1, 2010, due to budget cuts.
Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia - No longer available as of 7/1/2010, due to library budget cuts.
Health Reference Center Academic - No longer available as of August 2010, due to library budget cuts.
Historical Newspapers Extra Edition - Temporarily unavailable, due to budget cuts.
Issues and Controversies - No longer available, as of May 1, 2010, due to budget cuts.
Lands and Peoples - No longer available as of 7/1/2010, due to library budget cuts.
New Book of Knowledge - No longer available as of 7/1/2010, due to library budget cuts.
New Book of Popular Science - No longer available as of 7/1/2010, due to library budget cuts.
Tell Me More - Tell Me More is no longer available, due to library budget cuts.
Today's Science - No longer available, as of May 1, 2010, due to budget cuts.

And this year? Michael Laris’ article in The Washington Post tells some of the story.  In his article he writes that "Spending on libraries has dropped by more than a quarter since 2008 - from $40 million to $29 million - and the materials budget has been lopped in half, to $3 million."

Laris writes,

"In Bethesda, shrinking spending means not renewing a bipartisan and demographically diverse list of periodicals next year. The Nation and Weekly Standard are out. Car and Driver? Town and Country? Gone. Also among the titles to be discontinued: Runner's World and Bicycling, Entrepreneur and Fast Company, Nature and the Journal of the American Medical Association.


In Damascus, it has meant scaling way back on efforts to help babies, toddlers and preschoolers - and their parents and caregivers - get ready for early reading. The branch organized 124 early reading programs during the last fiscal year, and attendance topped 4,000. But in the first half of this fiscal year, about 800 participants squeezed into just 13 such programs.

The cuts also have meant earlier closing times."

Parents Coalition Second Annual Summer Reading List

This year our Montgomery County Public Libraries will be the only ones in the entire State of Maryland not to participate in the Maryland State Department of Education Summer Reading Program. Why? Budget cuts of 24 percent to our libraries. Also unavailable due to budget cuts is access to Academic OneFile, Encyclopedia Americana, Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Historical Newspapers Extra Edition, the New Book of Knowledge, the New Book of Popular Science, and on and on. Eighty positions will be lost, on top of the 60 positions already cut in Fiscal Year 2010. Meanwhile the Board of Education has a surplus to run the public school system. Or something.


In lieu of the public libraries being able to provide staffing and books to our children, the PCMC offers as a public service our Second Annual Summer Reading List.

This year I thought about what I had read as a child and then had a brilliant idea: ask my mom what SHE read as a child, to rediscover those old classics. My mom reminds me that was during the Depression, so no one actually bought books. They went to the library. Her local library was the wonderful Duffield Library of the Detroit Public Library System, on West Grand Boulevard.

Somehow even though it was the Depression, the City of Detroit managed to keep their libraries open and staffed and provide books to their youngest citizens. She remembers her favorites being Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), by Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), as well as used comic books from the neighborhood grocery store.

Moving to the next generation, friends recommend two books by Howard Pease: Captain of the Araby (1953); and The Ship without a Crew (1934) both featuring the main character, Tod Moran. Pease was born near Stockton, California and his books were based in part on his own adventures around the world. John Billington, Friend of Squanto (1956) by Clyde Robert Bulla is also another book that comes highly recommended.

The younger generation recommends The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster (1961). This is the story of bored Milo who drives through a magic tollbooth. As we are at the height of summer I am sure there are lots of bored boys and girls out there that would like this adventure story.

As last year, if you have a book to recommend to our kids, please post it in the comments here. Enjoy the summer, relax, and read with your children!