Thursday, November 10, 2011
The Evanston Public Library will likely not transition to an autonomous library fund model until 2013, but an agreement with the city will still provide the library board with increased control.
More than a year after the Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees voted to adopt a library fund model to become an autonomous governing body rather than an advisory group, the board endorsed a tentative agreement with the City of Evanston that would keep the library as part of the city until 2013. As recently as two weeks back, the library board planned to switch to the new governance model at the end of 2011. But at the board’s Wednesday night meeting, Evanston City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz proposed an agreement between the two sides that would instead gradually transfer some governing authority to the library board over the course of the next six months. Bobkiewicz said the move was preferable to the board’s original plan because an …
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Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Ave, Evanston, IL
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Thursday, July 21, 2011
Though the Evanston Public Library is legally autonomous, it will be financially reliant on the City of Evanston for the near future. Can the library board operate successfully with such contingencies and will it ever become wholly self reliant?
It has been almost a year since the Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees voted to become an autonomous governing body by adopting a library fund model, but only in the past few months has the board been forced to take up the new responsibilities that accompany their decision. For the first time ever, the board will have the ability to determine how much funding the library gets in the coming year by levying a tax as a percentage of the money the city receives from property taxes. While this seems like an ideal mechanism to alleviate recent financial concerns and even expand neighborhood services, the transition to the new funding model burdens the board with a new set of considerations, including defining its relationship with the …
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Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Ave, Evanston, IL
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Wednesday, November 17, 2010
A letter to the editor about new options for library services.
I would like to share the following email I sent to City Council: I have to admit a certain amount of frustration in writing this email. However, since even our school listserv has been made into a platform for branch supporters, I think it's important to raise my voice again and remind City Council that our current library system does not offer equal access to library services throughout Evanston. As you know, library support should not be considered an indicator of library usage. An outside report by the OCLC (http://www.oclc.org/us/en/default.htm) shows that "Library funding support is only marginally related to library visitation" http://www.oclc.org/US/EN/REPORTS/FUNDING/DEFAULT.HTM (Interestingly, the study shows that the best …
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Members of the group Friends of the Evanston Public Library, which has raised money to keep branch libraries open, rejected what they believe is a step backward in library funding.
At a meeting of the library's board of trustees that went on for nearly three hours Wednesday night, community members stressed their support for the library system and urged the board not to back down on efforts to increase funding for the system. The meeting saw the introduction of two new board members, Mildred Harris and Sharon Arceneaux, who were appointed by Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl at Monday's six-hour long city council meeting. Wednesday's library board meeting marked the first one the two freshmen trustees participated in, and it focused heavily on the ordinance proposed at the city council meeting. Discussion of that ordinance was held off until Wednesday's library board meeting. The board of trustees has pushed for a …
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Resident Gary Rejebian advocates invoking taxing authority to end the city's long neglect.
It's absolutely ludicrous that the Evanston Public Library, a public library in a university town of national stature, should be a poorly funded library compared its peers. The time has come for Evanston (which prides itself in great public schools and all manner of public resources) to stop the cycle of business as usual for a vital community resource like the public library. Evanstonians should know that the EPL's book collections are woefully outdated and its electronic resources are at dial-up levels compared to the G4-level array of the resources available at other peer libraries. But chances are most residents don't – because that's "business as usual" in Evanston city government. After recently deciding to separate the Evanston …
42.048325
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Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Ave, Evanston, IL
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The Evanston library board explained their new funding model at a public forum on Wednesday night.
Representatives from the Evanston Library Board of Trustees said Wednesday that they will avoid hiking taxes under the new library fund model. The funding model allows the board to set the library tax rate up to a certain amount and determine the use for the money based on budget priorities. Skokie, Arlington Heights, Deerfield, Highland Park and Naperville all use the library fund model. Board member Diane Allen-Jacobi said that a 10 percent increase in the current library budget would range from $1.98 for a $1,000 property tax bill to nearly $18 for a $9,000 tax bill. She said the board has no intention of drastically increasing taxes. "Do not fall prey to somebody telling you that we're going to raise the taxes," she said. "We will do…
Lori Keenan
4:23 pm on Thursday, July 21, 2011
Wow, Jordan, excellent reporting on a truly complex issue! Here's a question, though, in terms of real dollars to taxpayers, what would a 9% increase in the Library's portion of the budget really mean? That part isn't clear. In other words, on a hypothetical $5,000 tax bill, aren't we talking about less than $20? Personally I'd rather have my money go for things like the Library than buying … more ›