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Wisconsin’s Legislative Audit Bureau this week released a report card for libraries that highlights the disparity between the municipal and county systems. Where the city got mostly A’s, the county received F’s.
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Melissa Brunsell and her daughter Emma, 4, of Holmen, browse the shelves at the Holmen Library. Brunsell is a regular user of the library and says they do a good job with there programs.
Erik Daily |
But that’s not the whole story.
City and county leaders say it makes sense to concentrate resources in the city system and that collaboration — not consolidation — is the key to providing residents in outlying communities access to the city’s rich resources without imposing heavier taxes.
The nonpartisan audit bureau evaluated the state’s 388 public libraries using Department of Public Instruction standards for hours of service as well as per capita staffing, spending and collection size. The audit was based on 2006 numbers.
The La Crosse library received the highest possible score in every category except hours. The city system boasts one of the highest per capita operating budgets in the state, and circulation over the five-year period shot up at three times the state average.
Library Director Kelly Krieg-Sigman said that growth in use stems from the library adding to its
collection — especially popular items — marketing and outreach, and a move two years ago to make the catalog available online to county patrons.
The county’s system, on the other hand, scored “below basic” in three categories and only “basic” in staffing.
That’s partly because the audit did not take into account the county’s decentralized system — it has branches in Onalaska, Holmen, West Salem, Bangor and the town of Campbell — nor the unique financial arrangement in which the municipalities own and operate the buildings.
Still, county library system Director Chris McArdle Rojo said she would like to keep the libraries open longer and offer more services.
But she and other county officials don’t think taxpayers want to pay for them.
“We feel that we’re not giving a Cadillac operation because people don’t want to pay for a Cadillac,” said County Board Chairman Steve Doyle. What the county does provide, he said, is “a good, basic operation.”
And while they may not be able to visit their local library as often as they might like, county residents have access to the city’s library and its collection.
Spending gap
There are plenty of disparities between the libraries. The city’s collection is about twice as big. Its buildings offer more than six times the square footage. There are more Internet work stations at the main downtown library than in the entire county system.
The most notable difference is in per capita spending.
The La Crosse Public Library ranks sixth in the state, with an outlay of $91.20 for each of about 51,000 residents.
The county system spends less than a third of that, just $24.83 each for about 59,000 county residents outside the city.
Since staffing accounts for most of the cost, it isn’t surprising the city system has about three times as many workers, and about a 5-1 ratio in terms of professional librarians.
And without staff, you can’t open the doors, which is what McArdle Rojo would like to do more often, especially on Tuesdays, when county libraries only have afternoon hours, and Sundays, when they’re closed.
More hours would be great, Doyle said; more taxes would not.
Holmen resident Melissa Brunsell visits her local library at least once a week to check out books for her 4-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son, as well as mysteries and romances for herself. They also enjoy Thursday morning story times.
Her only wish is for a little more space at the local library, which has been in a refurbished grocery store for the past 20 years. The village and library supporters are working on that.
In Onalaska, the county’s largest site, work already has begun on a $2.6 million expansion.
Shared resources
City and county leaders have discussed merging the library systems, though the last time the topic was raised in 2002 it never reached open debate.
Leaders of both systems say consolidation would cause more problems than it would solve. To make services even, county residents would have to pay more taxes or city residents would have to give up something.
The answer, they say, is collaboration, something that has increased in recent years.
County residents can access materials on city shelves through interlibrary loan, and both systems honor the other’s library cards. And, considering La Crosse’s daytime population swells by nearly 40 percent, according to Census Bureau estimates, many county residents are coming here anyway.
In 2006, the city system loaned out just more than 1 million books, videos, CDs and other items. Of those, about a quarter went to La Crosse County residents living outside the city. Another 10 percent went to residents of other counties.
“That’s how it should be,” Doyle said. “You don’t need a full-fledged operation in every community, as long as you have reasonable access to those types of services in the vicinity.”
And while it may be considered unfair that city taxpayers foot the bill for others, people choose to live in the city for the easy access to amenities such as parks and libraries, said Mayor Mark Johnsrud.
“That’s part of being a city,” he said. “Everyone’s going to be able to use those services.”
Chris Hubbuch can be reached at chris.hubbuch@lee.net or (608) 791-8217.
To read the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau’s full report on its audit of 388 local public libraries and 17 regional library systems, click here.
