IL Librarians Question Book Program
Will a new proposal to distribute free books come at the expense of library funds?
By Debra Lau Whalen -- School Library Journal, 3/1/2004
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich wants librarians to calm down: the $26 million price tag for his newly proposed books-for-kids program won't come at the expense of public library funds, he says. So where exactly will the money come from? It's still unclear, says the governor's spokesperson Rebecca Rausch, explaining that it will likely be squeezed out of the FY 2005 budget.
No one's arguing that Blagojevich's proposal isn't noble—he wants to launch a program that would give every preschool child statewide, regardless of household income, a free personal collection of 60 books. Newborns will receive their first book at the hospital and a new book will arrive each month until their fifth birthday. But librarians are finding it hard to believe that this new initiative would be feasible without slashing library funds, typically the first item to get hit during tough economic times. Illinois had a $5 billion budget deficit in FY 2004 and now faces a $1.5 billion shortfall for FY 2005.
It doesn't help that libraries weren't even consulted about the program. They learned about it during the governor's State of the State address on January 15, along with everyone else, says Robert Doyle, executive director of the Illinois Library Association. To top it off, the literacy organization Imagination Libraries, launched by country singer Dolly Parton, has been chosen to select and distribute the books, rather than librarians.
The good news is that the governor's office is receptive to the library association's concerns and is open to possible collaboration. One idea is to insert handouts into each book promoting public libraries and their services. "[Imagination Libraries] is not designed to compete with or take the place of libraries, and the governor is not going to cut libraries to fund this program," Rausch says. "We all have the same goal, to increase literacy."
