Louisana eliminates state funding for libraries

Louisiana is cutting state funding for local libraries.

“In tight budget times, we prioritized funding for health care and education,” commissioner of administration Paul Rainwater, who is also the governor’s chief budget aide, said in a statement. “Operations such as local libraries can be supported with local, not state dollars.”

This means that smaller, rural communities will have a much harder time finding funding for their libraries than people in wealthy urban areas (like LA's capital, where the lawmakers live-who i doubt ever visit a library anyway)

Michael DiResto, the spokesman for the Louisiana Division of Administration, told the Library Journal that the new budget includes two federal grants for technology that would allow the state library to purchase e-books, which local libraries can also utilize, and funds for local libraries to host technology training and buy necessary equipment.

Do you see the irony there? Bobby Jindall will take Federal dollars for his libraries, but leaves the rest to the local community. Priorities, you know.


www.csmonitor.com...

So what say you, ATS? Are libraries in small, rural communities important enough for the well being of the whole state to justify spending the money to keep them open? Are they out-dated? If a small, rural community cant find the resources to fund their own library, should they just not have one?

i live in la.the only people who admire bobby jindal are senseless christains. he's a liar and a sellout.

Originally posted by stanguilles7
Louisiana is cutting state funding for local libraries.

“In tight budget times, we prioritized funding for health care and education,” commissioner of administration Paul Rainwater, who is also the governor’s chief budget aide, said in a statement. “Operations such as local libraries can be supported with local, not state dollars.”

This means that smaller, rural communities will have a much harder time finding funding for their libraries than people in wealthy urban areas (like LA's capital, where the lawmakers live-who i doubt ever visit a library anyway)

Michael DiResto, the spokesman for the Louisiana Division of Administration, told the Library Journal that the new budget includes two federal grants for technology that would allow the state library to purchase e-books, which local libraries can also utilize, and funds for local libraries to host technology training and buy necessary equipment.

Do you see the irony there? Bobby Jindall will take Federal dollars for his libraries, but leaves the rest to the local community. Priorities, you know.


www.csmonitor.com...

So what say you, ATS? Are libraries in small, rural communities important enough for the well being of the whole state to justify spending the money to keep them open? Are they out-dated? If a small, rural community cant find the resources to fund their own library, should they just not have one?

It's total hypocrisy. They run on a platform of "Small Gummint. No handouts" and people vote for them screaming "Small Gummint. No Fee Handouts". Then, they have to shut down public services because they removed the funding. And now, look.

Personally, I think they should get funding to keep their libraries open. But they voted for this. This is the consequence of their vote.

A good library system if vital for a functioning democracy.

What are they doing?
The library system in Georgia is something I am proud of. I'd fight however I could if it got threatened, even if I don't use it that often myself.

“In tight budget times, we prioritized funding for health care and education,” commissioner of administration Paul Rainwater, who is also the governor’s chief budget aide, said in a statement

Priorities? According to the state budget, they will be spending 34 million dollars on Prisons in 2013, but cant spend $900,000 on libraries.

doa.louisiana.gov...

Originally posted by hadriana
A good library system if vital for a functioning democracy.

What are they doing?
The library system in Georgia is something I am proud of. I'd fight however I could if it got threatened, even if I don't use it that often myself.

In this state the prison industry is private and for profit, now arrests and imprisonment are way up.

Now they will gut the last remaining state funds for libraries.

RED state people please do consider carefully how you vote!!!!

Originally posted by LDragonFire


In this state the prison industry is private and for profit, now arrests and imprisonment are way up.

Now they will gut the last remaining state funds for libraries.

RED state people please do consider carefully how you vote!!!!

Watch how you vote? I'm looking at a state unemployment rate of 7.2%. Funny how states with Republican governors have lower unemployment rates than the national average.

Plus with the rise of people having internet access, libraries are not as vital as they have been in the past. But that won't stop liberals from pouring money into failing programs, that's what they do.

I'm not surprised. We have several libraries in the county I live in, but if you tell most people you like to read they think you're crazy. Education from the Georgia line west is not a priority, in any sense of the word.

Originally posted by Carseller4

Originally posted by LDragonFire


In this state the prison industry is private and for profit, now arrests and imprisonment are way up.

Now they will gut the last remaining state funds for libraries.

RED state people please do consider carefully how you vote!!!!

Watch how you vote? I'm looking at a state unemployment rate of 7.2%. Funny how states with Republican governors have lower unemployment rates than the national average.

Lets look at this"
1. Nevada Brian Edward Sandoval (R) 11.6% unemployment
2. Rhode Island Lincoln Davenport Chafee (R) 11% unemployment
3. California Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. (D) 10.8% unemployment

What was that about republican governors?

“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

Ray Bradbury

This is sick.

Knowledge is power. Squeeze the life out of a vital source of information and knowledge for rural areas and you diminish what little power they have left too. Plus, in some parts of rural America, libraries are a main source of internet access.



Honestly, I think Jindal is a very disturbed person. As a former native, I was once very hopeful for Louisiana because he is very smart. However, he has done nothing but abandon his bright ideas and pander to the ultra-conservative and religious base of the GOP.

Originally posted by Carseller4
Plus with the rise of people having internet access, libraries are not as vital as they have been in the past. But that won't stop liberals from pouring money into failing programs, that's what they do.

Actually, in rural areas, libraries are often the only way many poor people have to access the internet. And this will directly cut funding for that sort of thing.

I'm curious if you can substantiate your 'failing programs' statement in relation to Louisiana libraries. How, specifically, are they 'failing'?

Originally posted by stanguilles7

Originally posted by Carseller4
Plus with the rise of people having internet access, libraries are not as vital as they have been in the past. But that won't stop liberals from pouring money into failing programs, that's what they do.

Actually, in rural areas, libraries are often the only way many poor people have to access the internet. And this will directly cut funding for that sort of thing.

I'm curious if you can substantiate your 'failing programs' statement in relation to Louisiana libraries. How, specifically, are they 'failing'?

edit on 8-7-2012 by stanguilles7 because: (no reason given)

The horse and buggy industry was also huge at one point. It's looking like internet is doing to libraries what automobiles did to horse and buggies.

I like the library. I actually use the library... the library is a wonderful source of information and resources.

In the county I live in, we just completed a brand new library... about 10 times the size of the little two room building it replaced. It has 4-5 computers, internet access, copiers and printers... lots of books and weekly and monthly papers and magazines.

It also has a lot of empty parking spaces. Unfortunately, most of the people in this end of the county do not visit the library... most people use the internet at home. I use the internet except where there are some wonderful resources on local history and architecture in the library... photo albums, pieces from private collections on loan.

Most of the people around here don't care and do not use the library...

Further, it is a county library with county and local funding... as such, it is open 6 days a week from 2pm until 7pm Mon-Fri and 8am-1pm Saturday... closed Sunday. No state funding.

They try to generate interest with Children's reading and Story Telling on Sat AM and a few lectures on local history like the Revolutionary War and Civil War or old plantation homes and farms during the week...

But really, the library is like the last phone booth in the corner of the grocery parking lot... kind of sitting idly by as technology passes by.

It is sad really as I believe books... wether I like them and have read them or not... books are holy, sacred, a living and breathing depiction of someone's thoughts and ideas.

So, if you are cash strapped... where do you make the cuts? Police, Firemen, Schools, Highways... empty libraries?

Originally posted by AlreadyGone


So, if you are cash strapped... where do you make the cuts? Police, Firemen, Schools, Highways... empty libraries?

Yep, that's how Jindall is trying to frame it. But a look at their state budget shows they are spending tens of millions of dollars on things like prisons. Much of their yearly budget is 'human resources'. That mean their own paychecks.

This isn't about libraries vs schools and police. It's about the state taking resources away from the small counties who elected them.

Originally posted by Carseller4

Originally posted by stanguilles7

Originally posted by Carseller4
Plus with the rise of people having internet access, libraries are not as vital as they have been in the past. But that won't stop liberals from pouring money into failing programs, that's what they do.

Actually, in rural areas, libraries are often the only way many poor people have to access the internet. And this will directly cut funding for that sort of thing.

I'm curious if you can substantiate your 'failing programs' statement in relation to Louisiana libraries. How, specifically, are they 'failing'?

edit on 8-7-2012 by stanguilles7 because: (no reason given)

The horse and buggy industry was also huge at one point. It's looking like internet is doing to libraries what automobiles did to horse and buggies.

Your claim was that libraries are 'failing'. I asked you to substantiate that claim, which you have totally avoided.

Care to try again, or more absurd and inaccurate analogies?

I'm sure if Library funding is cut, a bunch of very concerned liberals will step up and donate funds out of their own pockets.

Wait....never mind....liberals don't like spending their money on things the mean something to them. That is the governments job. I wish they would put their money where their mouth is, but it won't happen.

reply to post by Carseller4


I'll as you a third time: How, specifically, are libraries failing, as you have previously claimed?

Or are you totally unable to prove your claims ?

reply to post by stanguilles7


I used to work in a public library... except that it was run by a private, for-profit corporation with a staff that was still mostly volunteer, a couple of minimum wage part timers (that would be me) and 2 manager types that obviously were doing better, but still not that well. We had a nice and fairly big building, but we'd leased half of it to a nearby community college to keep the doors open.

The community college library was impressive, or would have been if I didn't know where it used to be. They had moved from a huge two story building on campus to half of a smaller one story building half a mile away so that the old school library could be turned into a lounge with couches, arcade games, and a couple dozen computers.

The new college library usually only had one or two staffers on duty- both of them educated in library science though and very helpful. The shelves were rarely touched and didn't seem to have anything written after the early 90s, but they had all kinds of database subscriptions that were infinitely more valuable, and which could be accessed from home if you asked nicely for the username and password you needed.

In the public half of the library we had around a dozen computers, available for half an hour a day to card holders- few people attempted to get anything done on them. They sat empty most of the time school was in session, then the kids would come in to play games and check email.

Our main business was popular fiction, after that came loaning out free children's movies to poorly dressed obese people who couldn't discipline their children, and behind that came loaning out "graphic novels" (otherwise known as comic books) to older, still undisciplined and almost always unsupervised children.

The non-fiction section was a joke- it had been squeezed in to a back corner on the most over-crowded shelves in the place- it was obvious that it used to occupy the college half of the library and was now being worked towards the back door and the dumpsters.I almost never saw anybody back there, except that behind that section were a couple of study cubicles where teenagers liked to make out. You could hardly get a book off the shelves without pulling half a dozen others down with it- but that didn't come up much.

Overall my impression is that library's are outdated, under-used and no longer provide enough public good for their cost, and in response the trend seems to be to privatize and shrink them to cut costs while moving away from their actual purpose and into the poverty-level entertainment business just to keep the scam running for a few more years (the scam being public dollars going to private companies who dont really provide an in-demand service- just keep a dying system on life support so politicians can say it didn't die on their watch)

I always had the distinct impression that the problem was a lack of innovation, owing to the fact that there is no stomach for risk, because there is so little room for profit (and trying to make room for profit would probably just kill the whole industry, since free stuff is the main draw).


HOWEVER, I think once the library system hits a critical point, somebody will probably step up to save them. My money is on colleges.

The next generation library will probably be less about actually stockpiling information and more about organizing it and giving you an access point.

It's got to be a place where you never have to wait or look hard to find a comfortable seat near a power outlet where you have good cell reception and secure high speed internet, with every imaginable kind of internet subscription service accessible. They will also need programs to familiarize people with tech, especially where creating information is concerned- helping organize information locals have about the layout, history, rules, opportunities, concerns, etc and making it all accessible on the web.

Being able to rent electronics would be a big boon too- whether it's just a laptop while you're on site, or actually being able to get a smart phone for the weekend.

Ideally it would be funded in significant part by the good will of media and tech providers, as a place where consumers get an on-location only sampling of media and devices that will influence later purchases. Of course you can always throw in optional stuff at a charge too.

But nobody is going to put money into experimenting with the library as a free access "third place" full of geek toys until the current gravy train of poor service and free government dollars stops.

reply to post by The Vagabond


Thanks for a thoughtful and interesting post. I do question your implication that public libraries need to be for-profit endeavors, though. When have they ever? It's Federal dollars that are going to support the kinds of internet access programs you are promoting yourself. Seems to me once you make it for-profit, it ceases being the access point for people of all income levels it is now.

I don know what you mean about many libraries being under-used, though. It really depends on where you live. I've lived places with vibrant, well-used libraries, if not under-funded, and ive lived places with big, fancy libraries no one uses.

I think it's true the fat needs to be trimmed, but I take pause when I look at their budget and see how much money they are throwing around.

doa.louisiana.gov...