Crunching The Numbers. Libraries Return Our Investment. May 17, 2012

If you use the library you’re seeing the lives it touches and understanding its value to your community.  But how do we describe that value to people who don’t use the library or to those who use it’s digital resources but don’t feel a personal need for the building itself?

Here’s one way to calculate the library’s value: Start by quantifying the dollar value of your own library use.  Input the materials and services you consume at the library into the library value calculator and you may be surprised at the monetary worth you enjoy. April Hichens, a local homeschooler, calculated a savings value of $18,000 in 2009.  

Now, let’s look at the bigger picture. In 2011 The Seattle Public Library offered over 6,400 free programs, hosted over 4,000 community meetings, and, in Central Library alone, provided 485,000 computer sessions. Imagine the value of those services and the lives they enhance. Zoom out even further and consider this…in 2010, America’s public libraries loaned roughly as many movies as Netflix, offered significantly more career assistance than the Department of Labor, and provided free meeting space that saved students, civic groups and businesses 3.2 billion dollars.  The value of direct library services is staggering and libraries generate even greater value by anchoring and enhancing their surrounding communities.

Seattle currently ranks in the top ten cities nationally in education and walkability and is the second most literate city in the nation behind Washington DC.  A strong library system provides foundation for all three of these achievements. According to Seattle Real Estate agent Adrian Willinger libraries drive the walkability of neighborhoods.  Walkability sustains our environment, draws business, and attracts skilled, intelligent people to the city. Libraries also play a critical role in education. In addition to partnerships with our local schools, afterschool support, and ongoing teen programs, Seattle Public Library provided free SAT prep for 228 students, helped more than 25,000 students with homework, and engaged 15,000 students in Summer reading programs in 2011. Libraries definately are an important component of our well-deserved reputation as a literate city. Funding our libraries so they can achieve the level of excellence envisioned when Seattle voted to expand and update the library system could return us to the top place as America’s most literate city, where we placed in 2005, 2006, and 2009.

Seattle Public Library plays an important role in the strength of surrounding business communities as well according to Christie McDanold of Ballard’s Secret Garden Bookshop, “We’re in a city that survives primarily on sales tax and secondarily on B and O tax,” she said. ”If retailers don’t see customers then the city doesn’t collect sales tax. If you’re going to rely on tax then you need to ensure that the business core is kept in mind and realize that there are public services, like the library, that impact commerce, well being, and health.” The library also supports Seattle business in many ways from extensive small business and foundation start up resources to wifi access that many young entrepreneurs use.

Crunch the numbers and its clear that The Seattle Public Library quantifiably contributes to vibrant neigborhoods and civic well being.  Please join us in actively supporting The Seattle Public Library. Vote for the library levy on this August 8th!

Read-a-thon fundraiser (May 19) May 13, 2012

Your first book: First Book Seattle read-a-thon fundraiser.

From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 19 at Seattle’s Elliott Bay Books, local authors including Sherman Alexie to Richard Hugo House program director Brian McGuigan and community readers, will be reading their favorite children’s books.

For more information head over to elliottbaybook.com or call 206-624-6600.

Please Keep My Library Open! May 12, 2012

Library users and union members gather at Central Library to protest the first of several one week closures of the entire Library system that began in 2009 as a result of budget shortages

The Library Levy that Seattle will vote on in August is, in part, a response to the hopes of thousands of Seattleites who made their opinions clear in feedback at community meetings and in online surveys between 2010 and January of this year. One message sent loud and clear was, “Please keep my library open!”

Passage of the levy will restore Sunday hours to every neighborhood library and stop the  week long closures neighborhoods have experienced each year since 2009.  Ironically, reduced hours began months after the successful rennovation of the library system was completed in late 2008 when the city failed to find or allocate ample funding to fully operate Seattle’s Libraries For All vision.  Public demand was already surging by 2000 and  has since grown by a phenomenal 45%.  Passage of this levy will restore the vision of library excellence to our community and re-open our neighborhood libraries as voters intended.

Fifteen of our 26 neighborhood libraries currently operate only 35 hours a week now.  In library feedback, patrons described the hardship working families experience in trying to access the library and talked about the sad impact on children through lost computer time, loss of story times and other programs, and lack of access to reference librarians or collections. For some, shortened hours have made the library impossible to get to anymore. Reactions have ranged between frustration and disheartenment.

Voters, you took the lead  in establishing our strong expanded library system.  Now the vision is at risk and the demand is not being met. Please join us in voting for library excellence and re-opening the library doors. Vote yes on the library levy in August!

An upcoming event with author John Irving May 5, 2012

Internationally renowned author John Irving will be speaking at Town Hall on May 17, starting at 7 pm.

 

Thank You Library Supporters! May 3, 2012

Thanks to all of you who supported the library by attending The Friends of The Seattle Public Library booksale and/or donated to The Seattle Public Library Foundation on May 2nd, Give Big day. Your support is important and appreciated.

Donations to the library on Give Big day were not just matched by The Seattle Foundation. The Friends of The Seattle Public Library joined with six other donors to create another  fund matching all charitable Big Give library gifts up to a total of $25,000. Last year during Give Big day more people donated to the library than to any other eligible non profit. Did the library once again surpass all other causes?  Stay tuned to this blog for final results.

Update:  The Seattle Public Library Foundation raised $128,635 from 1,044 donors.  Thank you for your support!

GiveBIG for Books! May 1, 2012

The Seattle Public Library Foundation wants you to Give BIG for Books as part of the Seattle Foundation’s community-wide GiveBIG event on Wednesday, May 2.  This year, the Friends will match the first $5,000 in donations.

To donate, visit the Seattle Foundation’s website.

 

Library advocate Walter Dean Myers coming to Seattle (April 21) April 13, 2012

The nationally renown author, Walter Dean Myers who was recently appointed as the  National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the American Library Association will be speaking in Seattle on April 21 at Town Hall.

You can find more information here.

City Council moves forward with Library Levy April 13, 2012

If you are interested, you can view the recording of the City Council meeting that took place on April 9 regarding the Levy

That’s all.

A local reflection on National Library Week (ending 4\14) April 13, 2012

Here is an article on “Why Libraries still matter”. You can read the article here.

Support for possible Library levy from City officials and Library leaders April 9, 2012

Here’s an news release from the Seattle Public Library about a public news conference held this afternoon: http://www.spl.org/about-the-library/library-news-releases/levy-press-conference-49