Steve Coffman's Case for Plural Funding

Good Day fellow Publiber's and other interested parties

By now some of you are probably aware that there's going to be a big old debate on the future of library funding at PLA.

On the one side will be Thomas Hennen (of the HAPLR Index) urging that we stick with the traditional, largely tax-based approach to public library funding, which has brought us all to the rather unenviable position we're in today. And if you don't think it's unenviable just remember your salary. Tom has pretty much stated his case in an article he wrote for the August 2004 issue of American Libraries and you can read a copy of it here http://www.haplr-index.com/restore_our_destiny.htm.


And on the other side will be little ol' me -- Steve Coffman -- who suggests that we would do better to follow in the footsteps of NPR and other thriving cultural institutions in our communities and develop a plural funding strategy that relies on taxes -- along with voluntary memberships, sponsorships, contributions and income we earn ourselves -- to significantly increase our budgets and take greater control of our own destiny. Of course, I've also written about this in an article in the February 2004 issue of American Libraries ...which you can read here http://www.lssi.com/coffman%20feb.pdf and in addition a number of we forward-thinking librarians commissioned a report from an NPR fund-raising consultancy on implementing the NPR model in public libraries. The report is called Saving America's Libraries and if you're interested in reading it, you can download it here http://www.pluralfunding.org/sal.pdf.

The debate is scheduled for Friday morning 3/24 from 8:30 - 9:45 at PLA in Boston. Mike Wallace will be doing the moderating now that he's freed up from 60 Minutes. Just kidding, June Garcia will be doing the moderating and sadly CBS will not be broadcasting it – I guess they don’t know what they’re missing. Each speaker will have 20 minutes to make their case in an opening statement. After that each speaker will respond to a series of carefully screened and pre-selected questions that have been contributed by the on-site audience ... or sent in online in the days leading up to the debate.

That's where you all come in ... if you have a question for either speaker that you'd like to see used in the debate you can either 1. send it to Publib so everybody can see it (Tom and I will be moderating the list and taking down everything you send or, 2. you can leave your question as a comment here on this blog.

The winner of the debate will be judged by a group of impartial city managers (just kidding ... whoever heard of an inparital city manager?) ... and the loser will be forced to pay $25 to help pay-off the library budget deficit in a city of their choosing.

Hope you all are having fun ... and getting well-paid for it ... and we look forward to hearing from many of you.

Yours, as always


SC

Tom Hennen's Case for Full Funding

Greetings,

Steve Coffman at LSSI, my esteemed opponent in our debate at PLA, would have us take a step back in time with what he calls "Plural Funding" on the National Public Library model. I prefer full tax support of libraries as an undeniable public good. I think that history is on my side but Publibbers are invited to hear us debate the issues on Friday March 24th at the Sheraton Boston Hotel - Independence Ballroom.

In the February 2004 issue of American Libraries, Steve Coffman urged public libraries to follow the lead of public radio and museums into "plural funding." Hennen responded in the August 2004 issue of American Libraries magazine. Hennen believes libraries are tax-supported public goods and chooses full funding. He sees Coffman's approach as a leap backwards in time that even Ben Franklin would have decried.

It was Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday on January 17, 2006. See:
http://ben.clusty.com . Librarians everywhere celebrate Franklin's life, career, and monumental contribution to public libraries. On July 1, 1731, Franklin and a group of members from the Junto, a philosophical association, drew up "Articles of Agreement" to form a library. From this modest begining blossomed what was to become the American public library movement.

Franklin's library was a subscription library, meaning that individuals subscribe to it much as people do today to National Public Radio. The difference being that in the Library Company of Philadelphia only subscribers could use the library while for public radio anyone with a radio can listen, of course. Coffman wants us to take a step backwards in time and fund libraries on Franklin's and NPR's unwilling model. I want us to go forward, not back, as my esteemed opponent would have it - forward to basictax supported public library service.

Most observers agree that the Peterboough Public Library in New Hampshire is the oldest tax supported library in America. In 1833 the town of cast aside Franklin's subscription library notion and chose to support the library with tax money. The march of history has chosen the tax supported library ever since. Nearly all public libraries in America today use the tax support model rather than the earlier subscription model. Yet Coffman would have us go back in history to an earlier model that he now dresses up with the flavor of "plural funding."

I believe that Franklin would support my concept of full tax supported funding for today's libraries not Coffman's urging to go back rather than forward to a plural funding strategy. Full funding from tax support, supplemented of course with donations, is what modern libraries need. This,I believe.

Participants in the Hennen/Coffman debate will hear both sides of a controversial debate on the future direction of public libraries. They will also know how to pursue a plural funding strategy as opposed to a full funding strategy and how to choose the best course. Participants will also have information on at least 5 tactics to use in a full funding strategy.

For Tom Hennen's side of the debate, see:
http://www.haplr-index.com/restore_our_destiny.htm
And: http://www.haplr-index.com/

For Steve Coffman's side, see:
http://www.lssi.com/coffman%20feb.pdf and
http://www.pluralfunding.org/sal.pdf
See also: http://www.lssi.com/

Regards,

Tom

Sometimes, that dotcalmguy