Iowa Commission of Libraries Letter to Governor Branstad
June 21, 2011
Dear Governor Branstad,
As members of the Commission of Libraries, the State Library’s governing board, we promote excellence in library services and advocate for Iowa libraries. We are contacting you to voice our continuing concerns over the Iowa Workforce Development proposal to close a substantial number of regional workforce centers and the IWD expectation that services to jobseekers will be delivered through virtual access points, located primarily in public libraries.
Since the announcement of this proposal, State Library managers have met several times with IWD staff. We understand that IWD has worked to secure the cooperation of other outlets willing to serve as virtual access points, including Extension Service offices, local veterans services offices, and others. Public libraries have by far the most extensive hours and the largest number of public access computers available, so our expectation is that libraries will be the most heavily used of these proposed virtual access points. We also understand the IWD staff are willing to make IWD software available to public libraries and other virtual access points, and that IWD staff have expressed a willingness to offer training to librarians regarding IWD services.
We appreciate the willingness of both the State Library staff and the IWD staff to discuss ways to collaborate in providing services to Iowa jobseekers.
However, we continue to have serious concerns about the proposal to transfer IWD services from IWD staff to public library (and other locally based) staff. Our concerns are as follows:
1. Iowa public libraries are heavily used: 2/3 of all Iowans have a public library card; there were 19.6 million visits to public libraries last year (54,600 per day); 29.4 million items were checked out last year (81,700 per day). Although Iowa librarians want to help, and are already busy serving jobseekers, many Iowa libraries have concerns about whether they have enough staff to take on additional services currently provided through IWD offices – as well as concerns about whether the current library staff have the necessary expertise.
2. The IWD plan apparently assumed that services now provided by the IWD offices scheduled for closure would be provided by libraries in a “self directed manner”, that is, without staff intervention. This is simply not realistic. While it may be tempting to think that job seekers simply walk into public libraries, sit down at computers and take care of their job seeking needs with little or no assistance from staff –that is not the way it happens. A recent major national study about use of internet computers in public libraries (conducted, in part, in Iowa) found that 67% of public library computer users ask for assistance.
3. Local public libraries receive less than 3% of their total funding from the state, and the rest comes from city and county government. In the eyes of public librarians, this proposal shifts the responsibility for providing the services from a state agency to a locally funded part of city government. State funding for libraries (it’s called the Enrich Iowa program) was cut by 18.2% in FY11, and we anticipate an additional 24.8% cut in FY12. Asking libraries to take on significant additional services while cutting their state funding by nearly 25% is, to say the least, problematic.
4. Iowa public libraries are governed by local boards of trustees, who are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the city council. The library director reports to the local board of trustees. The director and board have sole authority to decide what programs and services the library will provide.
5. There were major communication problems associated with the IWD announcement and subsequent messages. The State Librarian was not consulted by IWD during the development of the IWD proposal, nor was any advance information provided to the State Library or Iowa libraries.
Despite these concerns, we applaud the State Library and Iowa libraries for continuing to communicate with IWD, because we know that Iowans in need of job services are already flooding into our public libraries, and that will only increase if IWD offices are closed.
We are contacting you now to request that you carefully consider the effects of closing IWD regional offices in the coming year. If the closures must be made, we request that you direct the IWD director to initiate discussion with the State Librarian regarding IWD support for and communication with Iowa public libraries as they take on new responsibilities in providing service to Iowa jobseekers.
Thank you for your consideration.
