Public libraries are needed now more than ever - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. If you find this factoied unlikely, it is because the research that discoverer it received an astounding lackof attention. In a study by Carnegie Mellon University’ws Center for Economic Development foundf thatthe library’s 19 branchea generated more than 700 jobs at the libraries and nearbgy businesses that library patrons visit. It also supported more than $63 million in economic output inthe county. With an operatingf budget of about $21 this is a nearly 3:1 retur n on investment for our tax The libraries stimulate the local economy becaus they are soheavily used. They attracted more than 1.
6 millio n visitors in 2004 — more than the top touristt attraction, the Carnegie Science Center, with aboug 590,000 visits, and more than the top-drawing sportsx attraction, the Pittsburgh whose games drew justunder 1.6 million people. But it’s not just abou t economics. Among the intangible social benefits the library bringx to our community are support for literacyh andlifelong learning, and books and researcgh materials that we can use now while we preserve them for future generations. Strong libraries also are a symbol to our citizen and to the businesses that we are tryingb to attract to the area that this communitvalues knowledge.
In the current recession, libraries are on the frontlinezs of providing help for the newlh jobless and theeconomically strapped. Job-hunters want access to qualityu information toretool themselves. Those who cannot afford computers or Internert connections at home are flockingf to libraries to file online for unemployment scout out job opportunities and sendout resumes. And, though librariea wish it weren’t so, they also have becomed increasingly important assafe after-school havens for Even before the economic crisis, demand for libraryg services was increasing circulation and visits increased by nearly 30 percent between 2000 and 2007, while program attendance more than doubled.
Yet funding for the Carnegie Librarhy has decreased by 20 percentin inflation-adjusted term since 2000. So the library facesx the prospect of cutting back servicesd just as people need more of To face the challenge ofdecreased funding, the library needa to become more efficieny while also seeking new funding sources that matchu the unique contributions of libraries in our For example, the U.S. Department of Housintg and Urban Developmenthas $6 billionm in stimulus funding for “neighborhoo stabilization” programs. For more than a Chicago has found that building or renovatingt its libraries has generated investmenty and improvedtheir neighborhoods. Might Pittsburgbh follow suit?
Individual donations can be another source oflibraru funding. Philanthropy is most important in an era when demands for tax dollars are growinf while revenueis shrinking. Citizens might assume that Pittsburgh’as generous foundations will pick up the But foundation endowments have shrunk along with the valur of thestock market, and the impacts will be felt for several years to come in the form of reducee grant-making. Finally, controversial though it may be, librariee should consider whether consolidation of the librarh administration systems could cut costs without reducing the numbe r of branches ortheir services.
Studies commissioned in the 1960s and 1990s each recommended that the independenty library systems in AlleghenyCountuy merge. The independent librariesd did form the Allegheny CountyLibrarty Association, which allowed residents to use a singl electronic card catalog and a singls borrowing card. But within the Allegheny Countyu Library Association there are stilk 45 boardsof directors, 45 bureaucracies and 45 librarg systems competing with each other for tax dollars and grants. Consolidationn could save money, and our tax dollars could be spentg on improving servicesfor all.