Meg Kolaya: Cuts Hit Library Serving Kids With Autism
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New Jersey's Scotch Plains Public Library, known for its award-winning "Libraries and Autism: We're Connected" training video and website, is in trouble. Governor Chris Christie has proposed cutting the state's funding for public libraries by about 74 percent, or $10.4 million--and the town of Scotch Plains has already reduced library funding by more than $40,000. We spoke to Library Director Meg Kolaya about the impact of the cuts, especially to those on the autism spectrum who have come to rely on the library's programs.
What impact will the cuts have on your much-needed programs for children with autism spectrum disorders?
Our work with individuals on the spectrum will continue despite our need to balance our budget. We will continue to host our Group Spirit parent meeting once a month on an open Thursday evening. We have several teens on the spectrum who have become volunteers, and they will be continuing to come to do their hours. Our NextReads book club for teens with cognitive disabilities has been meeting Tuesday nights at our local Panera [Café] and, although we take a break in July and August, we will definitely keep this totally volunteer-staffed group going.
NextReads is an amazingly great program. The library staffers who volunteer for this feel it's the most gratifying of experiences. Our kids have made so much progress and just love coming to their book club each week. Their parents are equally enthusiastic and have become great library advocates when we need support. I think the inclusive way we do most of our programming means all our patrons will share equally in the cuts, whether that is the good news or not.
How many children with autism and their families do you serve?
It's hard to give hard numbers for families and kids. We have gone out of our way to try to make everyone welcome at all our events. I know there are now over 35 families who are part of Group Spirit, but our large and growing collection of materials are used by those families, extended families, grandparents, neighbors, and heavily by teachers who work in schools with inclusive classrooms. Last summer, we actually partnered with Group Spirit and Autism Family Tours, another local group that does family activities, and have trained teen mentors to work with kids on the spectrum to make several of our special summer reading programs especially welcoming to children with special needs.
Your "Libraries and Autism" customer service training video, which your developed with Dan Weiss, director of the nearby Fanwood Memorial Library, has turned into a professional development tool used by libraries around the country. Will that continue?
Dan and I continue to take our workshops out to other states and libraries to share our message of inclusive library customer service for those on the spectrum. If you take a peek at our website, you will see we have been all over...even to Canada.
Just how severe are the overall cuts?
Our cuts are reflective of the huge hit all New Jersey libraries are taking, as well as a $40,000 cut from our town. The trustees reluctantly agreed to close two evenings a week and to cut our part-time people back on hours. The trustees have put their own funds towards continuing some databases that we have always received from the state and region. Over the past year we have cut hours, and resulting benefit costs, for six people. This cut will reach even further into our dwindling FTE's. Three fulltime positions have not been filled.
This is the second year the library budget has been reduced by the township. Pending cuts from the state include elimination of on-line databases, interlibrary loan and delivery, training, regional services, and web-hosting.
What effect does this have on school libraries?
The school libraries are also losing services from the state, and all New Jersey schools are faced with huge budget cuts. We have a great collaboration with the local joint school system, and we worked with them to have summer reading titles early so we could seek out titles on the list at our Friends' book sale and to find copies from the 2009 budget funds to fill the summer needs.
I heard that one of your local high schools couldn't afford EBSCOhost, so they're telling students to go to the public library.
It's frightening to think of the "disconnect" here. No databases in the schools, so send them to the public libraries...but wait, they don't have them either! I really don't think anybody has been paying attention. Or maybe they think miraculously all will turn out OK.
Are there plans for further collaboration with Fanwood Memorial Library?
Ironically, Dan and I have been working for three years with our combined library boards to study the feasibility of merging the two municipal libraries into one joint library to better use our funding for better services to the public. All of that is on our webpage, but the economic downturn has thwarted our work at this time because there is no support for the funding for the needed expansion of my facility to accommodate the joint library. We continue to plow ahead.
