Gathering Places
Gathering Places
Where does the
library system fit
into candidates’ plans
to reform education?
[ EDUCATION MATTERS ]
Election years always seem to generate a huge increase in use of the word "change": change in the way we tax businesses, change in how we spend our tourism dollars, change in how we support the education of our children.
One of the most talked-about changes is to move governance and financing of our public education system out to local school districts; perhaps along the way we'll dismantle the Board of Education and reduce the Department of Education administration. Candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and the House and Senate -- almost all have taken a position on this issue.
Has anyone taken a position on the Hawaii State Public Library System's future if the BOE goes away, and if governance and financing are parsed out to local districts? Since 1982, the library system has had its own budget, its own procurement process, has done its own planning for its services and programs. Will anyone be looking at replacing the fiscal and policy-making oversight that is now the BOE's legal requirement in HRS Chapter 312, which is our enabling legislation?
We are well aware that, of the BOE's two responsibilities, Hawaii's public library system is the lesser. We have never put ourselves in competition with the DOE for funding, from any source.
Instead, we have worked diligently to become entrepreneurial by providing enhanced, fee-based services over and above our core services, and by creating and nurturing partnerships with other government agencies, nonprofits, businesses and other types of libraries, to provide access to information that we would never have been able to provide by ourselves.
And we think we've been fairly successful! We have no legal entanglements; we have been able to greatly expand our Internet access and we are bringing our technological infrastructure into the 21st century. We have put together a Hawaii Library Consortium that has made available a huge package of full-text databases in public school, private school, and public and private academic libraries across the state. We have established centralized support services for our 50 libraries that have resulted in more cost-effective and timely services available at local libraries.
Our progress toward expanded, accessible, cost-effective library services to all of Hawaii's residents (within our $21 million budget) has been well supported by the BOE, which has approved, endorsed and advocated for all of the changes, reorganizations, service proposals and requests for funding that we have made.
If DOE authority were to be distributed to local school districts, would that authority also include public libraries? How much commitment to support and accountability might a local school district have to the public libraries that are included in their service area? Given the immense difference in size of budget and governance need, could libraries expect any amount of commitment or involvement from local school boards?
The Hawaii State Public Library System became a statewide system in 1957, when county libraries were combined with the Hawaii State Library; at that time, the counties funded their public libraries' operations. Should we return to that mechanism? In 1995, HSPLS did away with district offices, with the idea that the cost savings from these administrative operations would be used to expand and support direct public service -- at a time when our budget was cut 25 percent and we lost 20 percent of our staff.
Today, with the establishment/revival of central support services, with the expansion of electronic access to our services and to resources worldwide, both in our libraries and remotely, with our multi-type library partnerships, we provide a huge value-added service to Hawaii's residents. The state library system still has a long way to go to be comparable to similar-sized library systems on the mainland, but we would be even further behind without the support and advocacy of our statewide board.
The questions I raise are rhetorical, certainly. I ask them to make a point: While we talk about the need for change in how Hawaii provides public education, and solutions are nailed into candidates' platforms, we should make sure that the solutions address all parts of the problem. Hawaii's public library system is the 15th-largest in the country by population; surely we deserve a well-run system supported by an authoritative, policy- and fiscally responsible board that advocates for consistent, cost- effective, timely services for all our people.
Virginia Lowell is the state librarian.
