Friends of the Libraries' Guest Columnist Features Ohio's method of funding libraries one of best in the nation By Stephen Hedges March 20, 2004 The Athens Messenger

Actually, it might be more accurate to title this column "From My Desk Chair" -- a sturdy wooden model that belonged to my predecessor, Helen Young, and for all I know may have belonged to her predecessor, and so on back to Dorothy Wightman, the first county librarian in 1935. It's accompanied by a small, practical wooden desk, sporting a few ink stains and lots of wear. Maybe the two of them have always been a set, but I don't know that for a fact.

I do know that they have seen many changes in the county's public libraries over the years. Almost all these changes have been driven by money. Even the creation of the library system in the mid-1930s was the result of a change in the way Ohio funded public libraries.

Until the Great Depression, a scattering of libraries serving individual towns, schools or special groups provided spotty service across the state.

During the Depression, the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) created "book deposit collections" in order to provide jobs for people. These were small libraries set up in storefronts and private homes all over the state and managed by individuals paid by the WPA. For many small towns this was the first "library" that had been open to everyone in the community.

By the waning days of the Depression, the WPA had announced its intention to shut down its book deposit collections.

Many Ohio legislators wanted to continue the library service provided by the WPA, instead of reverting to library services only in those communities willing or able to pay for it.

State Sen. Robert Taft, grandfather of our current governor, led the effort to provide public library service to as many Ohio residents as possible. He introduced legislation that would give a county's intangibles tax (a state tax on investments) to any library that would agree to open its doors to everyone who lived in that county.

In 1935, the Nelsonville School District Library accepted the challenge, began receiving state funding, and began serving the entire population of Athens County as the Nelsonville Public Library system.

In funding libraries with the intangibles tax, the legislature had made a significant decision. The State of Ohio was making a commitment to provide funds for libraries in return for universal access for all residents. While the funding system had some problems -- some counties collected more intangibles tax than others -- it still provided a stable base for public library service throughout the state.

When the intangibles tax was eliminated in the mid-1980s, a new system for funding public libraries had to be devised. The solution was the Library and Local Government Support Fund (LLGSF), a model of efficient public funding that has allowed Ohio's public libraries to become the best in the nation.

The LLGSF sets aside a percentage of the state income tax collections (currently 5.7 percent) to be distributed to libraries using a formula based on spending an equal amount of money on each resident.

When income tax collections are high, as they were in the late 1990s for instance, then library funding is good. When income tax collections are low, as they have been over the past few years, the library funding is weak. In other words, when times are tough for Ohioans, times are tough for libraries.

Library funds have been greatly reduced in the last few years, but these "cuts" are just natural result of the downturn in the state's economy, and required no action from the legislators or the governor. Many people know that the legislature threatened to further reduce library funding last year, but it bowed to intense objections from residents and let the LLGSF continue to function as intended.

There is, of course, a constant danger that our legislators will not remember the lessons learned from the history of public library funding. There is a danger they will not remember that the state pays for public libraries as the best way to guarantee that every resident of Ohio has free and equal access to the information and knowledge that libraries provide.

And there is a danger they will not remember that the LLGSF is one of the most efficient public funding systems we have.

In times of need, the temptation to grab fund from any source in the guise of "improved efficiency" is sometimes hard to resist. At those times, it is up to us to remind our representatives that Ohio's public library funding, unlike public school funding, had proven over decades to be fair, efficient and equitable and does not really need any "improvements." It's a recipe that works, and works well.

Stephen Hedges is director of the Nelsonville Public Library.