[Mpls] library board candidates and books

[Smart for Minneapolis Library Board]

I would like to respond to several posts regarding the library board campaign:

I have never met Mr Vreeland and therefore he could hardly have noticed me with a book or otherwise (I thought this was an odd comment to make ...) however, I am currently reading:

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to my children
The Life of Pi for fun, and
Poor People and Library Services (edited by Karen Venturella) for my research on how to improve our Library system - which has a wonderful forward by globally acclaimed Librarian Sanford Berman and a fascinating chapter on the vibrant Hosmer Library by this list's own Wizard Marks.  Interestingly, our MPL system does not own this book and I had to make an inter-library loan and wait a week or so to get it - but I highly recommend it!

It is my feeling that MPL should adopt and implement the American Library Association's Policy 61 on removing the barriers to access to information for poor people.  We have a wealth of  information and experience right here in the Twin Cities with the ALA Socially Responsible Round Table and the Progressive Librarians Guild at St. Kate's, which could assist us in moving in this important direction.

I am also a writer and have published pieces in The Future of Communities: >From Local to Global and The Politics of Human Services, and have worked as an investigative journalist in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

In terms of funding, Mr., Cox was not able to attend the Forum at Washburn, however, I unveiled a three point plan to increase funding for our library system:

1) Work relentlessly with the City Council, Mayor and Board of E&T to assure that a dedicated tax levy is assessed to support the full operating/capital costs of our Libraries as one of the most essential services that we have.  St. Paul uses this model to great effect, and the proof is in the pudding as their system has not had to make the devastating cuts that Minneapolis has pursued.  In fact, a study cited by Peter Pearson, the President of the St. Paul Friends, indicates that 71% of citizens are enthusiastically willing to pay a proper amount as part of their property tax to insure that libraries are open full time and providing excellent services.  In addition, we need to make sure that large businesses and corporations are paying the property tax they should be paying, rather than getting off with a paltry sum while homeowners carry the city's tax burden.

It is essential that our system also ORGANIZE library lovers and users to apply sustained and vigrous pressure on our elected officials to do the right thing ("Power concedes nothing without demand").  St. Paul (and other cities) has done this for a dozen years or more and hundreds and thousands of people will come out to the offices of government and demand that libraries be properly funded.  Our present Library Board voted to terminate the Citizen Particiation Initiative rather than embrace and work cooperatively with this body.  In fact, as a library activist in Nokomis, the relationship between Board and community has been more adversarial than cooperative.  This has got to change.  St. Paul recognizes that devoted library users are one of the most important resources we have to make libraries better and we should too.

2) MInneapolis should implement a building impact fee, wherein each new house, development and significant renovation, will be assessed an impact fee that can go directly to libraries, in particular to collections and acquisitions (Franklin library has four copies of Jane Eyre on one shelf, but the fiction shelves are more empty than they are full!)

3) Our system brings in a very small amount of local and national grant money, less than a quarter of a million.  With millions and millions of dollars available in all kinds of philanthropic and governmental organizations, there is really no excuse for not increasing this amount of funding many times over.  I have been a development consultant and grantwriter for about 20 years and I can bring this kind of skill to the Board.


In addition, I think that the Library Board should significantly change it way of thinking about the system.  Our Board was faced with a budget shortfall and slashed expenses, despite the devastating costs to staff, communities and collections.  The only thing that has come out alright here are the actual buildings.  If I as a single mother face a budget shortfall, I am not going to tell one of my children, sorry, you've got to move out I just can't afford you anymore...no, I am going to hustle and make sure that I somehow come up with the funds to keep food in their mouths and a roof over their heads (my white and class privilege helps me here - while many others are not so fortunate).  Our Board balanced the budget on the backs of the working people - the staff and the users.  They used a business model, a corporate mindset.  Our library system is not a business - it's like the kitchen - the most important room in the house!  We need to adopt a different world view that is reflected in that fierce mother who will do whatever she can to protect and maintain her family.  Please read Chris Dodge's article in the latest Utne Reader for more on this subject.

Finally, in terms of books, as a Board member, I will recommend that Minneapolis also adopt the St. Paul idea of the entire City reading one book, and I have a few suggestions:

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Friere - this could be the most powerful and important book ever written about our excrutiating times - the oppresser is also oppressed, but only the oppressed can catalyze true liberation - and how...

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - what really has been the effect of white supremacy/colonialism/imperialism and how has the european invasion of the world torn everything apart?

Predator and Prey by Ward Churchill - how many of us wake up every morning and realize that our european ancestors brutally devastated 98% of the Indigenous First Nations living in this place and that today genocide prevails - when an Indigenous person's life expectancy is less than 50 years?  that each step we take is on stolen land?  that the lovely woodwork in our older homes is from stolen trees?

Affirmative Acts by June Jordan - a political poet and philosopher not to be ignored but treasured

Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale by Maria Mies - did you know that the genocide of nine million women in the church-initiated witch-burning times provided the opportunity for church and state to appropriate an enormous amount of capital and property, providing the material basis for colonialism to begin with?

People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn - anybody interested in the Truth?

and of course, everything by our own treasure, Louise Erdrich

yes, Mr. Vreeland, I do read!

Samantha Smart
smartlibraries2005 at earthlink.net
Smart Libraries are OPEN Libraries!



Candidate for Minneapolis Public Library Board
smartlibraries2005 at earthlink.net
Smart libraries are OPEN libraries!