By Karen Goff
West Virginia is home to more public libraries than Walmart stores and McDonalds combined. These libraries vary in size from 724 square feet to more than 66,000 square feet and in annual operating budgets from $27,000 to $8.1 million. They all have books, provide access points to cyberspace and preserve local history. Libraries develop and enhance multiple literacies, serve as community centers and connect people to jobs, educational opportunities, health resources, government services and each other. Libraries are free to use—but not free to run.
Funding the Mission
The core mission of public libraries—providing open and equal access to information for all—requires public funding. Local, state and federal governments all contribute. Chapter 10 of the West Virginia Code grants the power to establish public libraries to local government funding authorities such as boards of education, county commissions and/or municipalities. The code specifies that the establishing authority may use direct appropriation or excess levy revenue to fund the library at a level sufficient for its operation.
Local definitions of sufficient vary widely. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, local tax-based revenue varied from $1.54 to $83.61per capita in the 97 public library systems in West Virginia. Total local operating revenue from both tax-based and nontax-based revenue varied from $2.83 to $100.56 per capita.
Comparable national data indicates the national average for total local operating revenue per capita is $34.16. According to the “Public Libraries Survey: Fiscal Year 2015” report by the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, D.C., West Virginia, at $12.93, ranks 49th in this category. Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia are all more than $29.
Serving the Mission
The vision of local libraries supported entirely with local funds is unfulfilled. Local tax-based funding provides less than 50 percent of the total operating revenue in 53 of 97 library systems.
The West Virginia Library Commission (WVLC) was established in 1929 to assist the state’s libraries. It provides both direct and indirect support. Direct support for FY 2018 is $5.09 per capita, and 42 percent of the state’s libraries depend on it for 40 percent or more of annual operating income. The WVLC awards additional grants to 13 libraries that provide professional and administrative assistance to 65 other libraries across the state, primarily libraries that are not directed by librarians with degrees from a graduate program accredited by the American Library Association.
Indirect services are provided using a combination of state and federal funds, including payment of telecommunication costs and maintenance of a state library network that provides internet access, email service, webpage hosting and computer technical support. These funds also support five library automation consortia serving 90 library systems; make online databases available to academic, public and school libraries; and subsidize continuing education, consultation, program support and services to the visually impaired.
Securing the Future
West Virginia’s public libraries are at the crossroads of increasing demands and costs and inadequate funding. They need supporters and champions at the local, state and federal levels. For years, the West Virginia Library Association has pursued legislation for dedicated, predictable and truly sufficient funding for public libraries. Some ideas presented include requiring all local governing authorities to contribute a given percentage of local property taxes for the operation of libraries, permitting local governing authorities to impose an additional levy on property within the county for the sole purpose of funding public libraries and establishing an improvement fund at the state level that would provide local governing authorities incentives to increase funding and local libraries incentives to increase services. These are not the only possibilities, however—any approach to funding must take economic and political realities into account.
Public libraries are essential to an educated, informed and engaged West Virginia. The investment of federal, state and local funds is essential for libraries to meet the information needs of 21st century citizens. In far too many of West Virginia’s public libraries, current funding levels barely provide for subsistence-level services. Subsistence-level library services will not support an information-based economy or meet the needs of a developing and ever-changing workforce. To ensure the future, West Virginia must respond. Failure to make the effort consigns not only libraries but the entire state to a gloomy future reflected in a permanent place at the bottom of national rankings.
About the Author
Karen Goff is executive secretary for the West Virginia Library Commission (WVLC). She holds a master’s degree in library sciences from the University of Pittsburgh. Goff began her career with the WVLC in 1972 and served as director of library development and library services director before being appointed as executive secretary in 2011. She is a past-president of the West Virginia Library Association and former editor of West Virginia Libraries magazine.
