Sonoma County Save Our Libraries. Get involved now!
We want: 

• Budget transparency.
• Library Advisory Board transparency, so our representatives are able to serve the communities they represent.
• Library Commission accountability to communities they represent.
• Roll back to hours in effect prior to August 1, 2011.
  
  Documents available to download, print and distributed.
• Library Commissioners' contact and service area information and MAP

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

In hard economic times those holding the purse strings cut services and staff, forgetting what Andrew Carnegie said, “A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert.”

Sonoma County Save Our Libraries (SOCOSOL) formed in June of 2011, when we learned that the County public library system would close on Mondays and all branches assigned the same hours regardless of community needs. SOCOSOL’s explicit purpose is to get the Library Commission to restore Monday hours, but we have uncovered other problems with the library system. The worst is the lack of transparency in the budget, and the lack of public input into library priorities.

Our task has grown past the ability of our steering committee to pursue alone. We need people who are willing to go to Commission and Library Advisory Board (LAB) meetings. Each branch has its own LAB. The LAB’s function is to make recommendations to the Commission and Library Director on all matters affecting library service. In order to be heard, you must attend your area LAB meetings so your Board knows what your needs are. Each LAB sets its own meeting frequency and times, so check the Library website or www.socosol.org.

Also, we are recruiting new members for the SOCOSOL steering committee. If you are interested in joining the steering committee, please go to www.socosol.org and leave us an e-mail. If you care to donate to SOCOSOL, please do so on the website.

Now is the time to jump in and help out. Please participate!

Statement for Commission Meeting January 23, 2012 – Sonoma County Save Our Libraries

  In order for library planning to be transparent, the public and the Commissioners need to have factual information to evaluate the library’s projects.

  As an example, in order to make some kind of cost-benefit analysis of the self-check/RFID project, you would need to see all of the associated costs in one place, and all of the tangible benefits as well.

   The costs of the project include, besides the cost of the machines themselves, the cost of software and software upgrades, the cost of maintenance, the cost of renovating the branches to accommodate the machines, the cost of design and engineering consultants, and the costs associated with recoding the collection.  All of these expenses are slotted into different budget categories, so how can we find out how much the project actually costs?

   On the benefit side, how do we know who benefits and how much?

   The machines have been promoted as a way to lower repetitive stress injuries and reduce Worker’s Compensation costs.  We did a search through the Health and Safety Library at UC Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program, and the results of the search showed that while similar claims have been made by administrators and vendors, there are no independent scientific studies linking self-check machines in libraries to a reduction in repetitive stress injuries.  I have asked the circulation staff at every branch I have visited, and I get mixed reviews, some saying the machines help, some saying they make no difference, some saying they are worse in some respects.

• Has the library tracked and compared injury rates where the machines have been introduced? 
• Has there been a reduction in Worker’s Comp costs that can be traced to the machines, and not a change of insurance carrier? 
• Can you refer us to some studies that support your argument?

   For every project that the library undertakes, you could ask the same questions and need the same information.  What is the total cost of the project or service?  Who benefits (what percentage of the library-using public) and how much?

•• Even if the accounting system is set by the county, there is nothing to keep the library from keeping a separate ledger for projects.  This is information the Commission should have anyway, and it would go a long way toward restoring confidence in budgetary decisions.

Don’t let this happen to
Sonoma County Libraries