April 2013: From the Director's Chair

April 14 - 20, 2013 is National Library Week. The American Library Association (ALA) has designated this year's theme as Communities Matter @ your Library.

Community has always played a central role at the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Libraries. This is reflected in the wide selection of materials in many formats dealing with many, sometimes polar and opposite, topics. The library welcomes all members of the community on an equal basis and attempts to provide everyone with free access to free information.

But as American economist, statistician, and author Milton Friedman once said, "There is no such thing as a free lunch." In the library's case, there is no such thing as free information. Library materials, books, DVDs, audio CDs, etc. cost money; library staff are paid; the buildings have to be maintained and utilities paid; and computers and access to the Internet has a cost.

In West Virginia, public libraries have only three options for funding: 

1) special laws
2) levies which have to be approved and submitted by City or County governments or by a Board of Education; and
3) charity dollars

Funding for the public libraries in Berkeley County was established by a special local law sponsored by local legislators and enacted by state legislators in 1970. This law mandated that certain percentages (based on property classes) of the property tax would go to the public library to help the library provide services to all of the county residents. The three entities through which this money was to be funneled were the City of Martinsburg, the Berkeley County Council/Commission, and the Berkeley County Board of Education.

Recently, the WV Supreme Court ruled that these special laws created a disparity between school districts with and without the law which is unconstitutional according to the WV constitution. Even though there are only eleven libraries with special local laws, eliminating special funding to them creates a ripple effect across the state. Some services provided by these eleven libraries will be eliminated or drastically curtailed, which will effect other libraries in the state.

Fortunately, the Berkeley County Board of Education has already placed the library's funding on an excess levy rather than taking the percentage from the general operating funds. Our library funding is safe...for now.

To create stable funding for all public libraries in the state and to address the constitutional issues, legislators have introduced Senate Bill 528. The purpose of this bill is to provide for equal treatment of county boards of education in funding public libraries as a part of the system of public education.

In the end, communities do matter to the library and, with financial support, will continue to support the community!

Pam Coyle
Director
Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Libraries