Lib Politics Rodeo May 20, 2014

Welcome to the Lib Politics Rodeo. Every Tuesday 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:

At the May 13 town meeting in Boxford (MA) voters cast secret ballots on whether to approve the borrowing of $6.57 million to build a new library. 59% votes yes, but the vote did not reach the two thirds it needed to pass.

But the "VOTE NO $10 million library tax" signs that popped up on front lawns over the past two weeks helped convince many people to take a no stand on the library project.

The current 14,500 square foot library is outdated and no longer meets building codes or ADA requirements. We're feeling really bummed about those VOTE NO signs in Boxford with the inflated price tags. It sounds like their current library is going to need a lot of public funding for fixing up anyway.... Let this be a case study in getting a solid and strong VOTE YES message out early and often.

TODAY, Valley of the Tetons (WY) residents are being asked to vote on increasing the levy for the library district. This two year increase, which is exactly double the current rate, would go toward another library branch called the Driggs branch. This would be the second library in the county. Pre polling has shown strong support for the new library. Good luck to the Valley of the Tetons Library today.

We have added one more fall election to our tracker. The James Memorial Library in St. James (MO) will have a measure on the August 5th ballot for a 30 cent property tax increase. The library was recently handed over to the city from the St. James foundation and the city is trying to transition to public funding through property taxes rather than user fees. Congratulations on transitioning your library to a truly public one. May you receive stable funding in the fall election.

There are 7 library elections today that we are tracking. We weren’t able to support any of them, but we can do better next year with your help. Please donate today at https://www.everylibrary.org/donate. Your donations can help us reach more libraries to help secure more funding. And if you are going to ALA Annual in Las Vegas, be sure to save the date for our after hours party on Saturday June 28th. It's going to be the kind of Vegas party that you can't miss. More details on that soon.

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