Lib Politics Rodeo March 31, 2014

Welcome to the Lib Politics Rodeo. Every Monday we will round up the previous week’s news on library politics and highlight some of the things that we are following or reading. Here’s what we have in our lassos this week…

News

EDIT (03/31/14):

The Georgetown Library (CA) has a parcel tax renewal on the ballot this June. Measure G is for a $20 flat fee per parcel, this is an increase from the $18 (or less) per parcel tax that will expire this year. Georgetown is one of the ballot measures EveryLibrary is supporting in 2014 and we will have more details on how we are doing that soon.

Scenic Regional Library (MO) will have a 10 cent tax levy increase on the April 8 ballot. This is the first increase in 55 years. The increase would help fund much needed improvements to the facilities, longer hours, and better library collections. This is one of the 10 campaigns that EveryLibrary is supporting in 2014. We will be watching the polls.

The Kanawha Library (WV) has requested that a levy be put on the ballot in November. This levy is expected to produce $3 million dollars in library funding per year. The library and the school board ran a joint levy that failed last November. Since the library is not a legal levying body, the school board must get this measure on the ballot for them. The school board will vote on moving forward April 7th. This levy will only be for the library and library leaders are hopeful that because of that it will be more likely to pass. The library has already had to cut 20 positions because of budget shortfalls.

We learned about three new-to-us campaigns this week. Tomorrow the Loussac Library in Anchorage (AK) will have a  $2.75 million bond for renovations on the ballot. The funds will be spent on a redesign the front entrance that is currently on the second floor and will add an indoor book drop with automated check in and book sorting. The Boundary County Library (ID) will have two measures on their May ballot. One is an 8 million dollar bond for the construction of a new library and the other is a $100k levy to fund library operations. Finally, the Hamburg Township Library (MI) is considering a ballot measure for the August 5th ballot. Ballot language has been approved by the township Board of Trustees for an 0.8-mill, eight-year tax levy, to fund digital services. This is an increase over the current levy that would enhance the current ebook collection and also provide audio books for patrons. This increase is expected to generate over $718,000 in the first year.

April is here and so is our month long course via Library Juice Academy. This course is designed to help library staff and citizen committees plan and execute effective info-only and GOTV work for their library measure. It will be held online through LJA and have both synchronous and asynchronous work focused on message development, voter data segmentation, opposition research, campaign techniques, volunteer engagement, coalition building, and fundraising. Sign up today, we start April 1st.

That’s all for today. Join us next week for another round up. Happy trails!