In May the voters of  Roseburg, Drain. Glendale, Oakland, Reedsport, Riddle, and Yoncalla  will have an opportunity to vote to form a proposed Library Service District.  Myrtle Creek  Winston, Sutherlin, Elkton, and Canyonville city councils are not allowing their voters to vote. If the district is approved county wide, these cities will not be part of the service district and county funding to support their local library will be in question. The five cities that refused to sign the resolution amount to about 17% of the county population and contribute a little over 12% of the total county tax revenues.

On September 1st, I attended a Keep Our Libraries Open meeting and learned that our library system in Douglas County is not expected to be funded after June 2012.  It is part of the government cuts which are happening in so many places around our country.  And it is connected to the end of the Safety Net funding for our county from the Federal Government.

Many important public services will be affected, as 33% is to be slashed for the fiscal year 2011-2012 which began in July. Unless we are rescued by Congress, the Safety Net will be replaced by the original formula based on actual timber harvests, which are expected to be about $3.5 million. With property taxes added this will put our county general fund budget close to $11.5 million.  Compare that with current budget of $26 million

I was delighted to hear that Carol Hildebrand had been named “Educator of the Year”at the annual Citizen of the Year banquet. I’ve known her for nearly thirty years now in our small-town way, and the good news first struck me as both a well-deserved honor and an unexpected one.

Carol is a librarian who presides over the Canyonville Public Library, and though she is not a teacher or professor I saw immediately the justice of the award. She spends her work ing days helping people, in a dozen ways, to get the knowledge that drew them to her small section of city hall. It is heartening to watch her patient and skillful work in greeting the patrons—taking the time to listen to their worries and hopes, their joys and sorrows – and always providing gentle suggestions for sources of further information or amusement.

For the last several years it has been almost impossible to live in Douglas County without hearing about the "Safety Net" However, like most of us, I didn't really understand what the "Safety Net" was and has been. I did know it was federal money that the county received from the government to make-up for not being able to tax federally owned land. I knew it was to be used for schools and roads but I didn't understand how its renewal, proposed in the president's budget, could help save the library system.  So I did some research.

THE COUNTY SCENE 
The Budget Box Encore

As you know, safety net funding is a direct feed from the federal government’s general fund.  It compensates Douglas County for the 52% of our land base that is owned by the federal government and does not pay property taxes.  It supplanted a previous formula that shared a portion of the revenue that was generated by the sale of commodities (mainly timber) with the counties and schools.

Cut back on expenses?
The Douglas County Public Library System has already had its operating budget cut several times. Coming into this budget cycle the system was already down to the bare bones. With this budget cycle we are now losing bones. The five largest (and busiest) of our county’s eleven libraries that were open for 40 hours per week are now down to 24 hours of operation. We are now at a point where we can not provide adequate service to meet our county’s needs with the amount of funds we have.

Run it all with volunteers?
While volunteers can be very helpful, running a public library system requires, at a minimum, enough trained full-time specialists to supervise the volunteers and professional librarians need to be paid.

A Brief History
The Douglas County Public Library system was founded in 1955 at a time when the county’s general fund was fat with federal timber sales money. From 1950 until 1990 logging went on at the rate of 1 billion board feet per year in our county, one third of which came off of the 52% of the land that is in federal ownership.

The 2011-12 Library Budget.
Due to reduced federal funding Douglas County's support for our library system has been steadily diminishing. This past year the library has been serving the community with roughly 30% fewer resources. There have been staff lay-offs, fewer book and media purchases and reduced library hours in all the branch libraries. However, this coming year, the budget will be once again cut but this time by 23%.

Spread the word  Today you can help by simply spreading the word that the Douglas County Library System may possibly be disbanded at the end of June 2012.

Write a letter to the local papers Letters to the newspaper are read by far more than just the named subscriber. Keep it short. Read more tips  from the News Review outlining the best strategy to get you letters published and read: here..