District 1 County Council member James Raben made comments at the Wednesday night meeting that seemed to imply he believes that expanding the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library (EVPL) is an outdated investment.
“Unless that's everybody's desire is to allow for $30 or $34 million dollar bond to extend more libraries that today I think needs to be discussed in public and, you know, amongst groups like this, because that's like investing in typewriters today.”
Following Raben’s comments there has been an outpouring of support for EVPL on social media and lots of posts with photos of typewriters, and threats to use them to send letters of complaint to Council Member Raben.
Ahead of his comments, the council was discussing the need for a member of their group to sit on the EVPL library board as a safeguard for unnecessary spending. The council can appoint two of the seven board members, and the new year brought an open seat.
The council voted to temporarily extend council member Joe Kiefer’s term.
Raben also expressed concern that the library was down in foot traffic and that expansion might not be a good idea, based on comments from a library board member.
“… But instead of reducing their levy, they're gonna go out and spend a hell of a bunch of money,” he said. “So their levy doesn't get reduced. So, again, that's the threat here.”
These comments brought online backlash and an opportunity for some clarification.
The EVPL does have a master plan that includes building onto branches such as the east, west and north, previously estimated at $2 to $10 million per project.
But Chief Operating Officer Heather O’Grady said asking for more money is a long process.
“… the city council has to approve additional appropriations and to discuss it there,” she said. “They are our fiscal sponsor, if you will.” Not the County Council. The EVPL also captures and uses its own tax dollars.
According to Lori Tomlin, stewardship and governance officer, a new bond is not in the works. They’ll stay right around $0.0361 dollars per $100 of property taxes which decreased from five cents in 2019.
O’Grady said foot traffic was down during the pandemic like Raben suggested, but they have rebounded to almost pre-pandemic levels. Out of a county population of about 179,000, 104,000 have a library card.
“We feel that investing in public libraries, and investing in EVPL really means investing in our people and in our community,” O’Grady said.
Raben said his comments have been misunderstood. Referring to the “typewriter” comment, “I'll say, that might have been a bad choice of words.”
He said was equating “typewriters” to building more brick-and-mortar library locations when there maybe better ways to meet public needs, and maybe there are new alternatives, like library kiosks or using existing retail space. Raben said he supports libraries.
“... all seven members of the council are 100-percent behind every effort made, so far with the library board,” he said. “And we want to continue to keep them in great condition, we want to keep them up to date. You know, if something gets broke, we want to fix it.”
He said he wasn’t suggesting closing branches with his comment, but repeating something he heard from a board member.
“Nobody, nobody is saying ‘pull back on library,’ we're just saying, ‘hey, you know, look for ways to overcome (challenges) with a bunch of long term debt,’ let's have a greater discussion on what our real needs are going to be to stay with times going forward.”
O’Grady said in her opinion, libraries will always be relevant, “because we are not just a place that holds a collection of materials,” she said.
“We are an Information Literacy Resource. We are a place that people can come for technology use for technology assistance, to learn new skills to better themselves and to find entertainment.”
