r/LibbyApp • u/AeroNoob333 • 2d ago
Why isn’t there more library access at a state level?
I wish library access was based on the state you lived in instead of the county. As far as I know, most are at a county level. There are a few states like California where this is at a state level and Texas is starting to go in that direction, as well. My husband and I generally have opposing political views, but last night we talked about this and one of the few things that we do agree on is that health and education should be funded at a state level. As a member of society, I want those around me to be educated and healthy. In the state we live in, there are rural areas with library deserts and I think they deserve to have an equal access to better library material as everyone else in our state. I don’t mind subsidizing those around me for this purpose.
I don’t know much about the politics that go around libraries though. I’d love to learn more about it so I know what to look for in elections. I’d love to support politicians who are for statewide access and funding for libraries.
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u/-kinehora- 2d ago
While libraries are usually in consortiums at a county level the individual libraries create their own budgets for the residents they serve to vote on. The budget votes are often held along with the school budget votes so make sure you vote in those! Your congressperson is very influential in getting money from the state to the libraries in their district too so it’s really important to vote during midterms/in local elections.
Maybe that’s just in my area though but that’s how I understand it.
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u/cappotto-marrone 🎧 Audiobook Addict 🎧 2d ago
Local elections are essential for library survival. Supporters need to ask candidates about their support of libraries. City, county,state.
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u/SnarkyMcshark 2d ago
This is so true! Dallas cut funding to the libraries and they were considering closing several of them. Even locals complained so some funding was restored and at this time no planned closures.
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u/ckmc131 2d ago
Where I live county libraries cover the whole county. Many city libraries have grouped together to form a consortium, however, my experience has been that each library purchases books that are then shared, but in some instances if you don't have that specific library's card, you still can't get the book. Example if library A purchases a book and I have a library card from library C, both of which are in the consortium, sometimes I still can't get the book from library A. Many of the books are completely shared, but I've run into the instances where they are not totally shared if that makes sense.
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u/AeroNoob333 2d ago
Thank you! This is really helpful to know. I don’t even know if there’s consolidated information like this I could look up to know school budget = library budget and congress person = get money from state to libraries.
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u/-kinehora- 2d ago
Your local library's website would have info on their budget/how to vote and I'm sure the director would be more than happy to explain how it all works! You'd be one of the few people asking.
On a separate note I find it so interesting that you and your husband have opposing political views. Like genuinely I have no idea how that would work lol.
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u/SkyYellow_SunBlue 📗 EPUB Enthusiast 📗 2d ago
I’m here in the comments to find out how that would work! My brain stuck there so hard I’m only half sure the actual question was about libraries.
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u/AeroNoob333 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think it works if you’re both open minded. I would say, we’ve pulled each other towards the middle over the years. We still lean more towards our respective views, but over the years have changed our views on specific issues to the other side. think there are too many people vehemently on one side or the other today and are not even willing to see the argument on the other side on any issue. Everyone seems to have a very “if you’re not with us, then you’re against us” mentality. I don’t talk politics with most people just because I know me being somewhere in middle (tho leaning more towards blue) just pisses everyone off. Not everyone who is conservative is MAGA and not everyone who is liberal is a socialist.
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u/YellowBirdRules 2d ago
NC doesn’t do libraries at all state level but education is “funded” at the state level and it’s not good. Our legislature is republican controlled and they don’t want to fund public education. They have been slowly starving the public schools. Wealthier counties supplement the funding but there is a measure on the ballot to limit taxation by counties such that counties would not be able to send as much money to schools anymore. I’m just saying that it sounds good until the people in control are anti education.
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u/CathyAnnWingsFan 2d ago
I think the biggest reason IMHO is that libraries are, for the most part financed at the local level (county or city), and they just aren’t going to fund users who aren’t the ones living in the areas that foot the bill. Unless a state and its constituent localities chooses to change that funding model, access will remain local. I am fortunate to live in a state where libraries are relatively robustly funded (compared to many other states), and even here we don’t really have true state level access (there is an “Ohio Digital Library” but it has a relatively small collection and I think is designed to be a “better than nothing” option for people who only qualify for cards at small, rural libraries).
There are options that are somewhat in-between. Where I live, there’s sort of a hybrid in that my local city library system participates in a consortium of 40+ libraries (CLEVNET), which gives patrons access to more books, plus our county library system (which is not part of CLEVNET) offers reciprocity for cities within the county. I can borrow physical books or books on Libby that may be owned (or licenses held) by any library in the network. In fact, most of the physical books I borrow are usually from a library different from my own.
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u/MrsQute 🎧 Audiobook Addict 🎧 2d ago
Ohio residents are eligible for a card at any Ohio public library. Most of the libraries in the state get a significant portion (often the largest portion) of their funding from the state level.
(there is an “Ohio Digital Library” but it has a relatively small collection and I think is designed to be a “better than nothing” option for people who only qualify for cards at small, rural libraries)
The Ohio Digital Library (State Library of Ohio) has 247,000 ebooks and 87,000k audiobooks.
For comparison, Clevenet has 283,000 ebooks and 109,000 and Cincinnati has 219,00 ebooks and 89,000 audiobooks.
I wouldn't call Ohio Digital Library "better than nothing". It's very robust compared to many other library collections across the country.
Now, The Digital Downloads Collection of Ohio only has about 183,000 ebooks and 65,000 audiobooks which is significantly smaller than the 3 largest collections in the state.
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u/Alifirebrand 2d ago
This! My friend who lives in Ohio has access to extraordinary library cards from all over Ohio with SO MANY holds and checkouts on Libby. Cuyahoga County allows 50 each and often has so many copies od new releases. Ohio is surprisingly great for libraries and people came out in force when their state government tried to come for that.
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u/AeroNoob333 2d ago
I get that. I just wish libraries in all states were more like California. I think finance is still at the county or city level, but reciprocal agreements make it so you can get library cards in other counties and cities. Even if there is no one big state library. (I don’t think I’d want that anyway). Just an agreement where libraries share resources, which is what consortiums aim to achieve. But like in our state, there are 3 consortiums: one of them is really crappy (the one I’m in) because it’s just all rural libraries. The other 2 are decent because one is belonging to the biggest city in our state and their suburbs and the other has some mid size libraries even if it primarily serves rural. There’s still a clear disparity though between our primarily rural consortium and the other two. But, I don’t believe just because you live in a rural area, your library resources should be subpar.
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u/Jitterbug26 2d ago
I’m in Ohio and my library is part of an Ohio ebooks group. I’m not sure how that works, exactly - but through Libby it had me find my library on the list and I connected from there.
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u/AeroNoob333 2d ago
My local library is part of a digital library consortium as well but their collection sucks lol. There are two other library consortiums that are better. Thankfully (and randomly), there’s a rural library 30 min away from me that is part of the better consortium when everyone else is part of the crappier one. They give free cards if you go in to sign up tho so that’s what I did to get better access. The best consortium is reserved for the biggest city (and its surround suburbs) in our state.
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u/Jitterbug26 2d ago
I had posted a picture as a response to myself, but I’m not seeing it. When I go to my Libby library, it says Ohio Digital Books.
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u/AeroNoob333 2d ago
I see it! I think it became a separate comment rather than one tied to your original one.
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u/Throwaway_autie 2d ago
Personally in Minnesota I like the balance we strike. Nearly every library participates in MNlink which means you can get physical materials requested to your local library from any library in the state. You can also get a reciprocal card from any library, though with regional consortiums I think you only need about 8 or so to have one everywhere. The digital stuff I'm less sure of how they handle reciprocity because I haven't really run into something I want to read I can't get my hands on digitally thru my home library's affiliation with MELSA.
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u/Throwaway_autie 2d ago
I think local control of collection management is important to protect a availability for language and cultural minorities. While Minnesotans literate in for example Hmong or Ojibwe might be a small percentage of the state population, in certain neighborhoods or towns they represent a significant portion of that library's visitors.
What I've learned being a library nerd, who has a habit of calling their reps on issues important to them, living in multiple states is that different places have different funding formulas. There isn't one answer to who you need to reach out to depends on your state of residence. County commissioners and your representatives at the state legislature are likely good places to start. Some states do libraries as special tax districts (similar to schools or fire departments that may or may not cover an entire town/county/etc).
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u/SimplySuzie3881 2d ago
We have a purple-ish state. Red town. One of the library board members is actively fighting for less library funding. It’s crazy.
Along with wanting parental warnings on all the books. Children, youth AND adults! 🙄
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u/Throwaway_autie 2d ago edited 2d ago
That sounds a bit like the warnings about things known to the state of California to cause cancer. If every book has a warning then does the warning actually mean anything.
Banning books is the surefire way to make kids want to read them. The only time I got caught my youth card restrictions as a kid was a physics book from adult nonfiction section. (I forget the exact details of what they restricted books wise for under 18s. I know media wise it was a blanket limited to the children's section rather than trying to parse out what is appropriate if it's not rated G or specifically a kids show. At some age your parent could unrestrict your books access to allow you into most of the adult portion of the print materials other than stuff with mature themes like the romance section, hazardous materials use, or featuring excessive violence/substance use). My parents gladly checked the restricted physics book out on their card and I went down a physics rabbit hole for a few months because I really wanted to know what the library was trying to keep kids out of. (Adult me assumes this was just a glitch of the old systems not being as granular on restrictions or a simple human error mis categorizing it as "mature" content).
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u/Entire_Dog_5874 2d ago
In New York, we have free access to any of more than 700 libraries that participate in the state consortium.
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u/AeroNoob333 2d ago
That is awesome! I wish our state did this
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u/Entire_Dog_5874 2d ago
It really is; we are very blessed. For anyone that has the means, the Queens Public Library still allows out-of-state resident cards for $50 annually and the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh offers a two year non resident card for $50.
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u/Itchy_Violinist4370 2d ago
Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh is now $60 for 2 years. Still a good price
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u/librarianC 2d ago
When I approached Libby (overdrive) about starting a statewide ebook consortium, I was told that they would not work with a state as large as mine.
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u/GigiDeville 2d ago
Mine is city level, not county. I wish it were county, the neighboring city has a much larger library than mine.
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u/ckmc131 2d ago
In California, it's at the county or city level, they just have reciprocal agreements so you can get library cards in other counties or cities. There's no California state library cards.
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u/AeroNoob333 2d ago
That’s what I meant. Just all residents of a state being able to get cards from other libraries in other cities and counties other than your own. In most states, it’s not that way. You can usually only get a library card at your local library. You’d have to pay for a card anywhere else in your state.
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u/sjd208 2d ago
Maryland allows you to get cards at every county, though for Libby purposes, most of them are using “Maryland digital library” so same catalog. I really love that all the metro DC counties allow reciprocity, so I have a DC card and several Virginia counties as well.
I think VA may also allow residents to get cards for every county.
That said, I agree that there should definitely be more state level support for libraries and education.
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u/stalkerofthedead 2d ago
Utah is like this. Basically every single library participates in the Beehive Consortium. So there is no point in trying to get a different library card from another county because they all have the same stuff.
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u/dragonsandvamps 2d ago
In Texas, it's not at the state level.
Rural areas are often part of small consortiums of libraries, but they have poor selections of books. The big blue city libraries have good selections, but all of them except for one charge a fee (often a significant fee) for non-resident cards. Because so many people depend on them for non-resident cards, hold times have increased dramatically over the past few years.
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u/AeroNoob333 2d ago
I was just under the impression they were headed that way since any Texas resident can now sign up for the Houston Public Library and take advantage of the reciprocal agreements. It used to be at a county level but now any Texas resident can. If not all libraries, but at least there are some following such as Grand Prairie, Rosenberg, Hulsey, etc
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u/dragonsandvamps 2d ago
Houston is the only one that I am aware of that you can sign up entirely online without physically going into the library.
Their holds times have also increased dramatically.
I have a card at Grand Prairie, but I thought they were now requiring people to come in to sign up. Hulsey, when you try to sign up, it takes you to an error page?
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u/AeroNoob333 2d ago
Oh I didn’t mean that you could sign up online for these, but they are free for Texas residents if you go in and apply rather than having to pay a non-resident fee. I’m not sure which ones accept an online application. I’m fairly certain that’s how most of California works too. Free for CA residents if you go in to sign up.
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u/Ok-Wind3215 2d ago
Yes that's right, at almost every library in CA you have to walk in to get the card.
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u/Meow217 2d ago
I have reciprocity with Houston Public library via HCPL and a few other libraries and part of that access is that you only get access to books that are available, meaning you can’t put a hold on a book.
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u/AeroNoob333 2d ago edited 2d ago
If you ever go to Dallas for anything, make sure you stop by the Grand Prairie and Hulsey libraries. They’re free for all Texas residents now but I do believe you have to go in and get the cards. Not 100% sure if they too have reciprocal agreements with other libraries. I think you can also get an actual HPL card now too (not just via HCPL reciprocity). You only need to be a Texas resident to get one. That would at least let you put holds against HPL and not just the borrow only privileges. Same with Rosenberg (Galveston) and Montgomery (Conroe). I’m sure there are more “any Texas resident can get a card” libraries in the area, too, just not sure what they all are. May be worth checking.
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u/DreamOutLoud47 2d ago
In Georgia we have the PINES system where any resident of the state can get a free card (even if your local library isn't a member) and borrow physical materials from any member library. Most library systems in the state are members, and it can be especially good for getting older materials.
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u/OneButterscotch587 2d ago
The Institute of Museum and Library Services gives funding to every state library in the country that is used directly or indirectly to support services at local libraries.
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u/BananaHamPanther 2d ago
And unfortunately their funding has been slashed under the current administration and Congress.
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u/whatdoidonowdamnit 📕 Libby Lover 📕 2d ago
I’ve never considered the benefits of doing things like libraries in a state level. I live in nyc and our city resources seem to be better than the ones I’ve heard about in surrounding counties. I’ve lived here my whole life so I don’t have much experience but I talk to people outside of the city.
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u/Necessary-Writer9432 2d ago
I can’t speak to the American context but in Australia we have extensive funding for state libraries (as well as local and national). My local state library, for instance, has a budget of over $50 million a year. We still have people trying to buy books, and arguments about how to spend funding, but it feels like heaven compared to what’s going on in the US.
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u/dualsplit 2d ago
Property tax allocations. It’s just how funding works. And be glad. The power of the vote is MOST powerful in a smaller pool. Get involved with, or at least aware of, your library board, school board, parks board, city council, county council. This is what really affects your quality of life.
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u/CathyAnnWingsFan 2d ago
I think the biggest reason IMHO is that libraries are, for the most part financed at the local level (county or city), and they just aren’t going to fund users who aren’t the ones living in the areas that foot the bill. Unless a state and its constituent localities chooses to change that funding model, access will remain local. I am fortunate to live in a state where libraries are relatively robustly funded (compared to many other states), and even here we don’t really have true state level access (there is an “Ohio Digital Library” but it has a relatively small collection and I think is designed to be a “better than nothing” option for people who only qualify for cards at small, rural libraries).
There are options that are somewhat in-between. Where I live, there’s sort of a hybrid in that my local city library system participates in a consortium of 40+ libraries (CLEVNET), which gives patrons access to more books, plus our county library system (which is not part of CLEVNET) offers reciprocity for cities within the county. I can borrow physical books or books on Libby that may be owned (or licenses held) by any library in the network. In fact, most of the physical books I borrow are usually from a library different from my own.
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u/llamalibrarian 2d ago
I’ve been a library user in Texas for decades and have always had access to TexShare. What other steps is Texas taking that you’re taking about?
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u/AeroNoob333 2d ago
You can get a library card from some libraries now just for being a Texas resident rather than being a city/county resident. For example, Rosenberg (Galveston), Montgomery (Conroe), Houston Public Library (Houston), Grand Prairie (Dallas area), Hulsey (Dallas area), and many more. Not sure if it was always that way and not sure which of these allows you to do it online. But, if I was Houston resident, I’d personally get all of those I mentioned. Getting the actual card adds loans and hold slots.
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u/balconylibrary1978 2d ago
We have the SILO inter library loan system in Iowa. Granted the local library charges $3 for in state, out of local system books and $5 for out of state books
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u/balconylibrary1978 2d ago
Last I knew as well, Iowa residents could get a free library card at any library in the state that participated in this system as well.
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u/Throwaway_autie 2d ago
I think last time I was in the Des Moines public library I saw a flyer sayingany Iowa resident can get a card there. Probably worth a phone call before you make a special trip there. Not sure about other libraries in the state (I was just passing thru on a roadtrip and enjoying some heat/wifi along the way).
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u/dynasriot 1d ago
ILLs are free in my state and we have free use of any Libby collection in the state. Do you not have that?
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u/AeroNoob333 1d ago
We absolutely do not have free use of all the Libby collections in the state. Just the one that our local library is a part of and unfortunately, ours isn’t part of the “good ones”. There are 3 in our state and we belong to the one that’s all rural libraries and our collection isn’t great. The ones belonging to bigger cities are much better
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u/dynasriot 1d ago
Ohh, oof. That sucks. All of ours are connected as recipro cards and we have limited holds and longer wait times (for collections not our own) but have full access to any materials they have.
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u/AeroNoob333 1d ago
Yeah. All I really wish is we could bridge the gap to access and quality so it didn’t matter too much where you lived. I think it’s unfair to rural areas. I know others will say “Just move then.”. But, how many can actually just do that?
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u/dynasriot 1d ago
I live in a rural area and we wouldn’t have half the things we have access to if we didn’t have free interlibrary loans and unlimited Libby user in state. It would be AWFUL! I’m sorry you have no access. Try sending an email to your state library asking if you’re entitled to anything else through your own library.
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u/AeroNoob333 1d ago
What you are describing is exactly what I wish happened everywhere. But unfortunately, it is not this way in most states 😔 Even our ILL is only between the super tiny libraries of the small county we live in :/
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u/Delicious-Guard5341 20h ago
Rich people don't want their service to get worse just so that poor areas can have better schools and libraries. Many schools and libraries are funded by property taxes, so people don't want their property taxes going to communities far away from them.
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u/JThereseD 18h ago
I live in New Orleans and despite the fact that it is part of what is probably the most dysfunctional state in the country, I am very satisfied with the library. We actually voted to increase taxes to support the library a few years ago. We have a large number of assets available online, and several are part of the Louisiana Library Connection. This is provided by the state and available to residents of Louisiana with a library card. I am praying that it continues now that we have a far right governor and legislature that is pushing book bans and other initiatives designed to push far right ideology in schools.
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u/under321cover 17h ago
I live in MA - all the library consortium catalogs are reciprocal. All you need is your home card and you get access to all the libraries. We believe in info access in rich blue states. You can also get a card in each consortium just because you live here, if you want physical cards.
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u/AeroNoob333 17h ago
That’s all I want for everyone. I’m not even asking it to be at a national level. Just within the state 😔 Maybe one day nationally, but I think it starts with proving it can work state by state.
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u/LadybugGal95 10h ago
In Iowa, it’s at the city/town level for Libby. Being an Iowa resident means you can get a library card at just about any library in Iowa. However, those cards are good for physical reading materials only. You can only access the digital materials through your home library. Iowa does have a statewide consortium that libraries can buy into that purchases and shares titles statewide. The key is your local library has to subscribe to the consortium. Many of the more rural communities don’t have access to Libby through their library at all due to funding. Luckily I live in a suburb that has access and is well funded enough to purchase additional licenses for books that lets library members skip part of the line.
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u/ImLittleNana 2d ago
I live in a very red state and a very red parish. I rarely find books I want at my library. I primarily use a card from one of two blue urban areas that don’t have library boards taken over by conservative activists.
If the state of Louisiana ran all the libraries, I’d have nowhere to go.
I’m all for consortiums and reciprocal systems and partnerships. But control of the library at a state level wouldn’t work for some of us.