From The Wall Street Journal, Friday, July 9, 2010.
A while ago, I went to my library and picked up "The Imperfectionists" by Tom Rachman (breezy, slender) and "Matterhorn" by Karl Marlantes (magnificent, heartbreaking). I subsequently exchanged them for "Solar" by Ian McEwan (not his best but good fun anyway) and "The Long Song" by Andrea Levy (a wonder).

I returned those and borrowed "A Week in December" by Sebastian Faulks and "Ask Alice" by D. J. Taylor. And for all of these new hardcover books, no one asked me for a dime (although this library is privately funded, and I contribute to it).

Free libraries are a privilege some of our forebears fought hard for. When they were first proposed in England in the mid-19th-century, opponents argued that libraries would give the lower classes ideas about ephemera like equality. Later, critics worried that they were a waste of time.

"Whenever I have entered any of our Public Libraries," an English doubter complained, "I have found…every chair occupied—in nine cases out of 10 by loafing office boys or clerks, who were using their masters' time for devouring all the most trivial literary trash." Those chairs are still full, though now they're more likely to be occupied by people looking for jobs, studying English or writing a term paper. But public libraries are a tempting quarry for budget cutters. Florida's state legislature recently proposed reducing its public-library budget from a lean $23 million to zero. Zero! (The budget was ultimately restored to $21 million.) Beginning July 6, all 73 branches of Los Angeles's libraries were closed two days a week instead of one.

"People here in Los Angeles are upset about the mayor's proposed plan to cut the budget of libraries...This could affect as many as nine people," joshed Jay Leno recently. Actually, it will affect millions of people, but you can see the problem: Libraries and their users are invisible to people like Mr. Leno's joke writers, among many others.

So raise your voices, library lovers. Raise money, too. Donate your time. Talk up your library with your friends and neighbors, especially if one of them is Jay Leno. Describing my feelings now, the historian Barbara Tuchman wrote 25 years ago, "Nothing sickens me more than the closed door of a library."

 

 

Gov. Christie signed the 2010-2011 budget for the Stage of New Jersey.

As of June 30, 2010, Gov. Christie signed the 2010-2011 budget for the Stage of New Jersey. This budget includes restoration of the NJ Network funding of 4.299 million and funding for the state library at last year's level. The state library remains within Thomas Edison University and responsibility for administering state aid was transferred back to the state library (in the original budget proposal it was transferred to DCA).

While significant funding has been lost this year, this restoration is clearly the result of the advocacy efforts of the library community and the residents of New Jersey who communicated their need for the services we provide. The New Jersey Library Association thanks all of our library champions from across the state who worked tirelessly on this issue.

While this is good news, there will still be cuts in services. At this point it is not known what services will be saved. Visit the East Hanover Public Library website for updates.