Loraine Walker has held a livestreamed storytime for children “every day at 10 a.m. without fail” on Facebook since the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic halted most activity in March.
Walker is the children’s librarian in the Starkville-Oktibbeha Public Library System, and she said she “cannot tell you how fired up” she is with ideas for children’s activities and programming once normal operations can resume.
But in order to broaden the library’s programming and collection, the system needs extra funding from both the city of Starkville and Oktibbeha County, director Phillip Carter said. He approached the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors July 6 with the funding request and plans to approach Starkville aldermen Aug. 4.
He told The Dispatch he has drawn up a five-year plan for gradual funding increases “so we can start to get our services, programming and staffing up to a more appropriate level for the community we serve.”
The library system also needs more staff, a new air conditioning unit and more technology, Carter said.
City and county leaders told The Dispatch they recognize the value of local libraries to a community and want to support them, but the pandemic has made it imperative for local governments to be careful with their spending.
“Libraries are critical to our city and to our community, but now is not a time when I think we are in a position to be able to increase their funding,” Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill said.
Underfunded and understaffed
The library system received nearly $396,000 in Fiscal Year 2018 from local government sources, with about $200,000 from the county and $196,000 from the city. That is an investment of $7.94 per capita, according to data Carter provided The Dispatch.
For comparison, the Columbus-Lowndes library system received nearly $641,000 — $10.83 per capita — with a population of about 10,000 more than Oktibbeha County.
The Starkville library is currently open for curbside from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and open for access to technology Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Carter’s most immediate ask is for both the city and county to fund the replacement of the library’s aging air conditioning unit, since state law prevents library systems from using their own money for building maintenance.
“We’ve been advertising (for a new AC system) since 2011, and it’s been pushed aside and pushed aside since then, but it’s reaching a critical mass,” Carter told the board of supervisors July 6.
The libraries are also understaffed at the moment, Carter said. According to the Mississippi Library Commission, each library system should have half a full-time equivalent employee for every 2,000 people the system serves, and Oktibbeha County has roughly 50,000 people. That’s more than 12 full-time equivalent employees, and the library system has eight and a half — one in Maben, two in Sturgis and five full-time and two part-time in Starkville, Carter said.
“In these limited environments, with the two days a week we’re open to the public right now, it actually requires more staff than we had before in some ways,” he said. “We have to socially distance staff, but we also have to have enough staff to serve anybody coming in.”
Carter also said the library could use extra money to teach both children and adults how to use all kinds of technology, like computer coding and 3-D printers, “all those tech fields that are obviously a part of our daily lives, that are part of education now that need to be supported a little more.”
The first thing Walker wants to do with extra funding is create makerspaces for children, and she said there is a misconception that all makerspaces are full of technology and that children’s use of them is “just creative play.”
“It’s bridging the gap between what they’re learning in school and what they’re learning here at the library,” Walker said. “The library is such a critical learning resource. It’s not just something to be used when there’s a class project.”
She also wants to diversify the collection of children’s books so all children can see both their own cultures and a variety of others in the books they read, and she said she started an early literacy program soon before the pandemic started and hopes to devote more resources to it when the pandemic is over.
“There’s not a kid alive that doesn’t love to read,” Walker said. “They (just) haven’t found the right book, and I always find the right book. I’ll do anything to get a kid to read.”
City and county budget concerns
Local officials agree that local libraries are an asset to their communities and deserve support, and Spruill said the city will definitely not reduce its funding allocation to the library.
“I’ll advocate for maintaining their funding, and we’re going to assist them with their air conditioning repair, but I am certainly not in favor of increasing their funding beyond its current level,” Spruill said.
Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk, the board’s budget chairperson, agreed that the city should help the library system with repairs and maintenance but will most likely be unable to fund changes in operations or hiring.
“We’ve started our budget meetings, and we’re having to dig ourselves out of a pretty big hole thanks to the pandemic and what we think it’s going to do to our sales tax (revenue), so holding steady is a win this year, for the library or anything else,” Sistrunk said.
Oktibbeha County does not reap the benefits of local sales tax revenue like the city does, but District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer said increasing the library’s funding would be “a wise investment.”
District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard said he is less certain that the county could give the library system the aid it requests.
“It’s a great resource, but at the present moment, given COVID, I don’t know how practical it would be to offer more funding, not knowing how long we won’t be operating at full capacity,” Howard said. “I’m certainly open to looking to increase the funding when we get back on some sort of level footing.”
Carter and Walker both emphasized the city and county have supported the library system and that they will appreciate any additional support.
“Anything anyone’s willing to give me, I’ll make it stretch and I’ll make it work,” Walker said.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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