CA Schools, Public Libraries to Cooperate, Not Cohabit

It sounded like a dramatic shift in public library funding: in last year's drafting of Proposition 14, a bond act for library construction, California said it would give priority to "joint use" projects between school and public libraries. Those are fighting words in library circles, because many librarians think the missions of the two entities—public and school libraries—are too different to reconcile under one roof. But California's Governor Gray Davis made "joint use" a condition of putting the bond act before voters. With $350 million at stake and a vast need for new library construction, librarians were in no position to argue.

But then came the tricky part, deciding what "joint use" would actually mean. That's when the dramatic shift turned out to be more like a gentle nudge. To the relief of public librarians, the board that recently finished drafting regulations for the new law took a very liberal approach to defining joint use. Under the guidelines, joint use can mean either a "co-located" facility—a school and public library under one roof—or, more palatable to many librarians, a simple "joint venture." That means the public library runs a homework center or another student-oriented service, which many libraries already provide.

The main difference is that now, public libraries must actually sign a formal cooperative agreement with the school district they're serving. Richard Hall, the library bond act manager, thinks that small requirement could have a big impact on the culture of school-library cooperation. "Getting to that stage [of agreement] is going to make a difference," he says, "mainly because the agreement needs to be in place for 20 years. So it's not just, 'Let's try to cooperate and if it doesn't work, let's forget it.'"

Still, public librarians don't expect the new law to significantly change what they do. For one thing, they say, with or without a cooperative agreement, most public libraries already focus much of their service on students. "In Scotts Valley, we were going to have a homework center. Now we'll have a homework center that's in the agreement," says Anne Turner, director of the Santa Cruz Public Library System and the new president of the California Library Association. Turner says, however, that getting the school board and library board to sign a formal agreement "isn't actually a slam dunk." The question, she says, is what California schools, notorious for having decimated their libraries after the state's property tax revolt, can expect from their public counterparts.

"We might say we'll provide space for a homework center, but we might negotiate an agreement where the district puts up staffing for the homework center—otherwise the school is getting a free ride and there's [nothing very] cooperative about it," says David Flint, assistant director for finance and planning for the County of Los Angeles Public Library.

Hall says it's not mandatory that schools provide funding for joint ventures, but that in a competitive grant environment—he estimates current construction needs at more than $1.5 billion—anything that makes a project seem stronger couldn't hurt. "We're asking [the grantees] to tell us how this program will best meet their needs," he says. "And money does speak loudly."