It is essential for any thriving community to have a functional, accessible and adaptable library. That is why it was thoughtful of Vision San Benito County to put on the recent forum focusing on ideas for a new library along with potential funding mechanisms.
The forum put a spotlight on the library and its supporters, who are preparing for a prospective push to ask voters to support a steady funding stream toward the local library system. Those supporters have their priorities in the right place because there is a desperate need for a new, improved library – while there is plenty of evidence in surrounding communities that new, multi-functional libraries can thrive.
It is easy for this community to get ahead of itself and get caught up in all of the possible variables involved in a new library – especially considering the ever-changing nature of technology – but that insecurity actually underscores the need for flexibility with any future library. It must cater to growth, and it must be adaptable to technological and consumer changes.
With libraries, establishing feel-good community support is the easy part. Getting post-recession voters in a poor county to fork over their hard-earned money for a new building and technology upgrades is the challenge.
The county will have plenty of competition on upcoming ballots, too, with the high school district and Hollister School District both priming for eight-figure bond measures next year. Voters could be weighing those items just two years removed from approving the 1 percent sales tax in Hollister, where residents are also about to get sticker shock from escalating water bills.
With more of a squeeze on taxpayers’ wallets lately, library supporters would be well served by garnering serious cooperation – and funding commitments – from the suddenly thriving school districts, which are quietly in the midst of reaping millions of dollars in revenue from Prop. 30 and California’s new local control funding formula.
Any new library must become a gathering place for the community – meaning the planning process should involve the school districts and it should involve Gavilan College. It is about time that someone puts public pressure on school officials – particularly those at San Benito High School who, for instance, have continually brushed off cooperative anti-gang efforts – to quit isolating themselves and do what’s best for the entire community.
Cooperation from schools – and a wide variety of local organizations – is a crucial element in the successful completion of any future library.
