The Library on Elm Street

Today the “Library on Elm Street” opens at Monument Square. While Phase I of our renovation unfolds we will be operating essentially a large branch at the site. The staff have culled as many items as possible that have a high probability of being borrowed by those visiting the space. Otherwise we are counting on being able to efficiently (and as quickly as possible) deliver items that you request, either in person at any of our 6 locations, or on-line via the web catalog.

It is an exciting day for us as we look forward to a huge improvement in the aesthetics and functioning of our main location. This phase of the renovation is scheduled to last at least 10 months but we are hopeful it might be a little longer reflecting our success as we concurrently pursue funds for items that are scheduled for Phase II.



We have done our best to work with the space we have available but it is not by a long shot perfect. There are not enough seats, not enough computers, etc. but hopefully the staff will be able to help you get what you need during your visit. Let us know what we might improve in the space and we will do our best.

As the highway signs say: “Temporary Inconvenience for Permanent Improvement.”

Budgets & Civility

This is budget season in the world of municipal finance. It is never comfortable even during times when the money is flowing. Flowing is a very relative term believe me but 2% increases sure look good about now.

Yesterday, the Library had a conversation with the Finance Committee of the City of Portland. It was civil and, to the extent possible during difficult times, supportive of what we do. It strikes me that there are a lot of good people in the world trying to do good things while doing their duty. It may not be possible to do both right now. You can't control the external factors but you can control your attitude and level of civility. I was grateful for the presence of those qualities last night in speaking with people with a hard job to do.

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PPL Executive Director Comments RE FY 10 Budget

City Council Finance Committee

Thursday, March 26, 2009 – 4:00 PM

Chairman Mavodones, members of the Finance Committee and City Manager Gray. Before beginning, I’d like to acknowledge my colleagues from the Library who are with me today: Morris Fisher, President of the Board of Trustees, Nathan Smith, First Vice President, Shelley Carvel, Treasurer, Clare Hannan, Director of Finance & Operations and Heather Tiffany, Director of Development and Programming for the Library.

For the second consecutive year, we, collectively as a City, find ourselves in extremely difficult fiscal conditions that merit the most thoughtful consideration, response and understanding and maybe most importantly, collective good will.

We recognize – and in fact have experienced both this year and last - the severe distress that this Committee and the Manager face through this process. There is much at risk: people’s livelihoods, our City’s quality of life, how we will nurture economic development; the list is endless. For our business this afternoon, Portland Public Library is part of the question of whether certain City services will continue to exist, and if so, how to address the challenges to effectively delivering those services to the greatest number given that every agency or department –including the Library - has been terribly compromised.

The budget proposal that you have before you has a very simple goal which is to maintain our current schedule of hours and by extension our existing level of personnel. This budget incorporates the drastic cuts made last year in the Library system in the form of a 10% reduction in system staff which played out in an 18% loss in hours at the Main Library – our busiest location. I don’t think I need to repeat or parrot the endless media coverage that we all have been subjected to concerning the demand and importance of public libraries at this moment. However the demand is very real and it makes last year’s cuts and any potential cuts next FY very painful to real people trying to hold their lives together.

This year’s budget contains some startling expressions that reflect the broad economic turmoil including a reduction in the collections budget of $117,000 due to the falling value of our endowment. Clearly we have our own “revenue problem”. Further, losing one full day per week at our busiest and largest location has affected our ability to rent rooms and lessened our overdue fees due to falling lending numbers. For this next FY, the situation is further exacerbated due to the renovation of Monument Sq which has compromised some of our earning possibilities by limiting room rentals.

The collections and programs of the Library are paid for primarily by Library funds including fees, fundraising, endowment earnings and grant support. In the past three years alone the Library has brought in approximately $3,000,000 to support Portland Public Library activity. Of that amount close to $1,500,000 has gone directly to support the operations of the Library while the remainder $1,500,000 is helping to renovate the main library. The funding from the City is of course vital in that it supports the staff salaries, electricity, heating, etc. – our infrastructure as it were.

We continue to raise funds for operations, have finished a case statement for endowment growth and are devoting more time to grant writing. An additional bright spot is the formal creation of the Friends of PPL which is now getting off the ground and from which we expect financial and program support once it is firmly established.

While we appreciate and understand the stress and challenge of your work, it is our duty to communicate clearly the impact of a flat funding scenario for the second straight year. Last year we worked with a set of budget principles that we communicated to the Council and posted on our website for public review. We have to some degree used those principles again but have also incorporated the “Observations” gleaned from the neighborhood meetings. Those observations, along with all materials from our 6 fall meetings, have been posted on our website for the past 6 months. We also shared at those meetings new “budget statements” that were intended to leave no doubt as to what we heard last spring and what our preliminary consensus was in the approach to the FY 10 budget. (Copies of these documents are part of your packet and will be reposted on our website as part of our budget packet)

It is worth noting that over the past three years we have hosted or participated in over 30 neighborhood meetings –including the Fall 08 series - discussing all kinds of library issues. The feedback from these many meetings, as well as two major citizen surveys, have informed our on-going planning and thinking around this year’s budget.

At our Fall meetings we promised publicly to submit a budget to cover costs to maintain all of our current operating hours and locations;

We stated that, if the necessary funds were not forthcoming, reductions would have to come from neighborhood locations.

The attendees at the meetings understood these two features clearly and asked that we keep them informed along the way of our budget submissions. We have done that to this point except for the details of this evening, out of courtesy to this Committee. The community also stated clearly that they favored a “share the pain” approach if funds were not available to maintain the system at FY 09 levels.

With that context in mind, an appropriation equal to last year’s will lead to the following steps:

All locations – except the Main Library will be reduced by 10 hours per week.

Peaks Island, Reiche and Riverton will be open 10 hours per week beginning this July 1.

Burbank will be open 30 hours per week.

East End Community School (or PPL Children’s Library) will be open 30 hours and then be reduced to 10 hours by the end of FY 10 after the Youth Services staff returns to the renovated Monument Sq facility.

With the loss of 50 hours per week and 2.5 FTEs for the next Fiscal Year, we will have compared to two years ago 15% less staff and a reduction of system hours of 23%.

In closing, we all have to make very tough choices. Portland Public Library has, indisputably, demonstrated a record of engagement with our users, planning, openness and a willingness to thoughtfully consider the options to deliver the best library service possible. As you all are painfully aware, we are in the second year of a continuum of fiscal uncertainty – and there may be more ahead - and we need to reorient ourselves to a new reality and force ourselves to transcend narrow agendas. It is clear that the Portland Public Library system is not the same institution of two years ago in terms of financial capability and no amount of wishing or posturing can alter that fact. There is a way forward – no doubt the road will look different - and we invite the Council to participate in a constructive, energetic and objective exchange with us as we continue to grapple with the challenges ahead

Monument Square Renovation Begins!

The renovation of the Monument Square location of Portland Public Library has begun. For a project that has been going on in some manner - planning, fundraising, community meetings, etc - for ten years, it is exciting to finally begin work that can be immediately seen by our members and staff.


A significant amount of our collections on the lower level have been moved including Government Documents, older magazines and newspapers and we will begin to move tens of thousands of items more in the next three weeks. All of these items are going to the Brown Annex. The collections that will be stored in the annex will be available through our catalog and can be requested and delivered to any of our 6 locations.

Beginning March 16, we will be closed for two weeks as we finish the moving of our materials. The Branches will all be open their normal hours.

For much more about the closing and the details of the project please see our FAQ.

NEWS FLASH: LIBRARIES DISCOVERED!

You probably have noticed in the last few weeks the large amount of coverage in the news media concerning public libraries. Sources from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times to the Bangor Daily News and MPBN have covered the surge in library lending and computer use during this difficult economic stretch. The recognition of library value is a good thing and like the starved institutions we are, we gratefully accept the momentary crumbs of affirmation thrown our way.

That may sound like a harsh thing to say, but the fact is public libraries are not simple triage institutions responding to stressful times. Day in and day out for years we have been returning – well under the radar - a tremendous value to our communities. But regardless of the value we bring, and the quality performance in delivering that value, neither is connected to the funding level of our institutions.

BURBANK BRANCH

Portland Public Library (PPL) is a case in point but there are thousands nationally I am sure. PPL lending grew by 15% over the last two years ending June 30, 2008. It may be that public libraries are the canary in the mine anticipating the broad economic pain to come or it may be that we are doing our job well and growing because of internal changes to serve our members better. But one thing is certain: in today’s public funding approach whether it be federal, state, county or local, the funding for public libraries has nothing to do with the value returned. The response in funding from state and local sources for PPL did not reflect our success but in fact resulted in serious reductions in library service.

Too often cuts are made during difficult economic time with a pseudo equity mentality. All agencies will be cut 20% for example, regardless of their value (or ability to absorb the cut) at a given moment in the continuum of affairs. If use of libraries is growing greatly because people actually NEED the library then that should argue for a more nuanced process for reduction in funding. I admit that is hard for a legislature or a City Council to do as there are many good agencies and departments and enormous needs unmet.

In thinking about value returned, let us use a conservative number – say $20 average - for the value of the 800,000 plus items lent by PPL in the last year. The return is about $16,000,000 on a taxpayer investment of $3,400,000. That number does not include a value (cost of a computer or ISP fee) on the over 125,000 computer sessions held at the Library or the over 130,000 research questions answered by reference librarians. So in our world the 15% growth is not “profit” that can be reinvested in infrastructure and staff to get even better. In fact, other than value returned directly to users, the 15% growth means nothing in terms of acquiring stable funding to improve long term institutional performance.

Before you are tempted to say that $16,000,000 is a phony or even irrelevant measure, then explain why it is that people flock to the public library in response to economic distress – and I emphasize this- in greater numbers, if there is not real value gained from the library use? The value is real and is returned daily regardless of economic circumstances but what is clearly different today is that the net of users has widened.

So after our economic prospects brighten and take hold, don’t forget that libraries were there when you needed them and more importantly, they will be doing every day quietly, far from the media watch, the very things you individually, and we as a community, need to prosper. The value proposition remains!

NEIGHBORHOOD CONVERSATIONS

Next Tuesday, September 16 on Peaks Island, the Planning Committee of the Portland Public Library begins a series of 6 public meetings (see schedule) to both inform and be informed by the public in connection to the future of the library system. These meetings are augmenting the ongoing Library planning and are also in response to a City Council request that we seek community input as we go forward in responding to any future financial stress.

One of the difficulties in generating useful and quality public discourse is the lack of historical memory by the people participating. We often underestimate the value of the documents or statements that were previously produced during crisis moments but possess a clarity that is born of necessity of the moment. We plan to hand out some material at these meetings but the “Response to FY 08-09 City Funding Reduction” located on our website since last May continues to describe our framework as we struggled to reduce expenditures by $225,000. Our goals, principles and steps are there for all to see and hopefully inform as to what our universe looked like at that point. The general thinking is as valid now as it was in May.

After two record setting years in a row, we have begun this new fiscal year with a 20% reduction in hours at Monument Square. Maine’s largest public library facility and the backbone of our library system now operates on a 5 day per week schedule after a loss of over 10% of its staff. The main library supports the work of our other 5 locations in addition to serving users directly. Interlibrary loan, the acquisition and cataloging of materials, the technology resources, outreach services – many, many things are done at Monument Square that make the branches better able to serve the neighborhoods.

The Library is full of hope that many people will attend one or more of these meetings and engage in a constructive and civil conversation about how we can create a great Library system and what that might look like. That will require a transcendence of narrow neighborhood interests and a genuine appreciation of what the mission and responsibility is of a library system to the entire city. Regardless of that vision outcome the financial commitment of the City of Portland must remain strong in supporting the Library’s infrastructure while the Library raises funds for programs, collections and services.

Reorganization vs. Renovation

When the doors to the Monument Square location closed at the end of the day on Saturday, June 28, we took a deep breath and began to contemplate the huge reorganization job in front of us. Since Sunday, June 29, volunteers and staff have put hundreds of hours toward the task of moving tens of thousands of items over two floors in an attempt to reorganize library operations and respond effectively to budget reductions and the loss of the equivalent of 4.5 positions.

We have eliminated a service desk and moved collections, computers and services for a more logical and pleasant user experience. We have continued to provide interlibrary loan, buy and organize materials and serve the public during these two weeks through branch operations at five other locations.

We have heard many things from the public while we have been closed these two weeks. Many have said that they miss us and for that we are deeply grateful. We have also heard that some folks misunderstood these two weeks to be our “renovation” project for which funds from the Reach for the Stars capital campaign are being directed. This is a good opportunity to clarify things.

The renovation of the Monument Square central library will begin next spring. The project, when completed in the spring of 2010, will change the nature of not just the Portland Public Library’s main facility but of Monument Square itself. If we are successful in the effort Monument Square will assume a position as one of America’s great small urban squares equal to what this City aspires to be. (Success in the short term means raising the remainder of the needed project funds)

When we reopen on Tuesday, July 15 at 10:00 AM, we hope that your experience at Monument Square will be a quantum improvement over past years but only a morsel size taste of what awaits once the renovation is completed in the mid 2010.

PPL in Neighborhood Life

If you live in Portland and read the papers, you’ve probably been exposed to the controversy surrounding our response to the FY 08-09 budget situation. We have posted an information packet (6-26-2008 - this link has been corrected - the document is on the PPL website, under the Press section) that tries to give context and explanation to the steps that we have taken which include reduction of approximately 11.75% (6 FTE) of our staff and an impact on when and where we can offer service.

The vast majority of the reduction has come from the downtown location (83%) and we will be open one less day a week. We have also made the very reluctant, and unpopular, decision to close the Reiche Branch at Reiche School in order to balance the remainder of our budget. We have offered to be part of a bigger discussion in the Reiche Community around quality of life and the role of the Library. Even though the funds may, with luck, be restored by the City Council, we desperately need to use the momentum of the current situation to understand more fully the community need that clearly transcends traditional library mission. We need to talk!

Neighborhood presence in as many Portland neighborhoods as possible is critical to meeting our mission and to the future of the Library. We hope to be part of a city-wide conversation next year with many possible partners to try and improve the quality of life in our communities – whether or not we currently have a building in that neighborhood.

The Board will host an open forum on Wednesday, May 14 at 4:00 PM in the Rines Auditorium concerning the response to the budget. Please come and share your feelings if you can or email me through this blog.