EveryLibrary California by Mary Abler

EveryLibrary California

by Mary Abler

If you've been following the world of libraries and politics, you have probably heard of EveryLibrary, the first, national political action committee (PAC) dedicated to libraries. EveryLibrary works with local ballot committees to ensure they have the resources that they need to win library measures at the ballot box, by providing funding, expertise, and logistical support to raise voter awareness. This past summer, they assisted Santa Clara County Library District to pass Measure A, extending voter-approved library funding that was set to expire for an additional 20 years. Currently, a two-thirds (AKA super) majority is required for any California library who wishes to ask its voters to extend or increase funding.

SCA7, a California bill that is under review, would reduce the current threshold for winning library ballot measures from 66% to a simple majority of 55%. This change would make it easier for libraries to win the funding that they need to be sustainable and EveryLibrary has responded by creating the first California library PAC, EveryLibrary California. Our organization will be working hand-in-hand with organizations that have helped to make this bill a reality, including the California Library Association (CLA) and California Public Library Advocates (CPLA). However, these organizations are 501(c)3 educational associations and thus cannot engage in extensive voter advocacy or fundraising for political campaigns. That's where EveryLibrary California comes in. As a ballot committee organization, EveryLibrary California can act where these associations cannot. The opportunity to fundraise and directly support a statewide library Propositions will be unique in the California library advocacy ecosystem.

Over the next year, EveryLibrary California will provide tactical and operational support to state-wide voter awareness campaigns and funding for state get-out the vote campaigns, as well as conducting direct voter advocacy in support of state-wide library propositions. We are not an organization involved in lobbying, but work to drive state-wide get out the vote campaigns. Of course, the first step to accomplishing these goals is fundraising.

There are several ways that librarians and library supporters can assist us in our efforts. The first is to become a Fan Fundraiser. Fan Fundraisers can help to raise money in any number of ways, through one-time fundraising events, outreach on social media, or direct neighborhood canvassing, and EveryLibrary California is there to assist you every step of the way. And, because we know how valuable your time is, there are incentives in the form of iPads and Kindles. We are also asking our supporters to organize letter writing parties, asking your friends and colleagues to send a letter to their senator supporting SCA7, or to send letters to the editors of local news entities, explaining how important libraries are to your communities.

I hope that you will be in touch with me if you are interested in helping EveryLibrary California in its efforts. To learn more, you can visit us on the web, and stay tuned for more updates:

everylibrarycalifornia.org

 

Sign-up to receive ELCA updates: https://docs.google.com/a/everylibrarycalifornia.org/forms/d/1eZb7t8TPetXh57yJafdfO5IMaOo_Df5yrhTYKV_Q-fc/edit?usp=docslist_api

Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/everylibrarycalifornia

Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/everylibraryca

Closing 2013 by Roy Stone

Closing 2013: A Brief Background for the New Librarians

by Roy Stone

 

2007

Bad but not so horrid budget for the City of Los Angeles, lots of rumors about things happening. First negotiations by Coalition of city unions completed.

2008

Budget worse; economy of city and state and country collapsing, rumors swarming, Coalition offers real ways to save jobs, first of which is Early Retirement Incentive Program which would cost the city a substantial amount of money initially but would result in hundreds, thousands even, off the payroll. But saving jobs isn’t easy, and it doesn’t come cheap and the negotiations were hard and they went on and on.

But in the end the unions did the right thing and the members voted the right way to save jobs, and the those still working committed through negotiations to pay more into retirement which gave us guaranteed health care benefits in retirement. We also voted to pay an ERIP incentive amount that will eventually be paid off, so current and newer staff members will see it end in about 14 years.

2009

Budget even worse, the recession and housing/stock market/investment -companies/banks thievery caused the destruction of many public services including libraries across the country, including devastating cuts to our Los Angeles Public Library.

Early retirements begin, but that means fewer staff, hiring freeze but service to provide.

Throughout 2009-10 the Guild participated in or led rallies at various places around the city including storytimes at the Mayor’s house. We wanted the public to know what was going to happen to their services.

2010

Budget getting worse, implementing reduced hours, reduced services, furloughs begin, layoffs were not threatened- layoffs were implemented. The Guild lobbied City Council, some pretended to care others ignored our concerns and in the end the votes were always against the employees. The Guild worked with library Management to reduce the number of layoffs required by the City Administrative Officer, but 15 of our newest freshest youngest librarians and 9 clerk-typists were laid off on July 1, 1010.

And because they are exempt from civil service 126 messenger clerks were terminated, fired. The Senior Librarian in charge of each unit was responsible for calling each person into the office, presenting them with a few HR statements, some paperwork to sign, retrieve their keys and badge and walk them to the door after they had collected their belongings. One of the worst days of our lives, on either side of the desk making this a most memorable horrid time. Things were bad but now we were reaching rock bottom. Morale was non-existent, all we did was hope to hang on, not expecting anything good to occur, which it didn’t. We had to reduce hours, no more Sundays, no more Monday service in the City of Los Angeles. Library patrons began calling their City Council representatives, and writing and emailing that they wanted their libraries restored. A couple of city councilmen thought that they could restore services with a parcel tax, but the idea of additional taxes even just $39 a year didn’t poll very well.  But the community still wanted their library. So, the next idea was to dedicate a minute amount of the funding that the city receives from assessed valuation of property tax. This meant no increase in the amount people paid on their tax bill, just that the library would receive a guaranteed amount of .03% after four years. The worst year ended with a little ray of hope. It became known as Measure L. 

2011

The year began with Measure L as the only priority, weekends were spent at Farmers’ Markets and other events of any gathering, the nights were spent at Neighborhood Councils, homeowners groups, we went anywhere we could tell people about the City election and that there was the critical ballot measure to save their libraries. Events were held by the Guild, donations made to the Campaign to Save the Library, a website was created, Friends groups were contacted, informed by librarians across the City. There were weeks and weeks of after work meetings and weekend meetings. And finally we began to make progress, with the responses we began to hear. On the Sunday before the election a rally was held in the park at Memorial

Branch with about two hundred people and many news channels in attendance. On election day over 60% of the votes supported the library. We could hire back the laid off staff and hire new people and restore services and hours. But that turned out to be only an idea in my head, only for two weeks when we learned from the City Librarian that the funding in the first year meant we could not hire back the laid off staff, we needed to restore hours and that took many more people and so began the creation of the “as-needed” staff. The Librarians’ Guild waged a fight to rehire the laid off staff which we won and patiently waited as the hiring began and to their credit Administration came back to us several times to say they could increase the pace of the hiring.

2012

Hiring of As Needed staff was continuing to support library hours, library hours increased and there was still not enough staff. Then As-Needed people started to get real jobs and the numbers diminished and the help diminished and we still didn’t have enough staff. And hours increased anyway. Senior and Principal Librarian examinations were held, botched a bit holding up the process.

2013

Eventually permanent promotions occurred. More hiring took place...half-time, civil service librarians were hired. Real librarians began to fill vacancies. Full time positions were made. Life at LAPL was being restored and from the depths we have begun anew. Not that everyone worked out so smoothly, hiring drags, staffing is insufficient, promotions took way too long, hours continue to increase and staffing continues to lag. But it is still time to cheer...we have hired new librarians, Measure L is working, services are returning, and we...have...new...librarians.

This long recap is to tell you how we got to this point and remind the old timers and the new ones that the Librarians’ Guild has been here fighting for services and all levels of staffing and promoting our work as we have always done for the past 45 years. As we face the new year there are continuing and new challenges, and a contract to negotiate. We must improve the safety of our members this year. We will work with Library Management also challenge them. This is to remind the old timers and the new ones that the Librarians’ Guild has been here fighting for services and all levels of staffing and promoting our work as we have always done for the past 45 years.

And that brings us to 2014, a bright new year.

A future article will be about all of the stuff that seems odd and strange, and inefficient and makes our unwieldy bureaucracy even more unwieldy, especially for the new librarians.