Hard Choices in Hard Times

Abstract

These are challenging times for libraries. Stories of budget cuts abound while librarians report rising demand for library services. (1) As we slash budgets and defer expenses, we may wonder how libraries coped during the Great Depression. Then, as now, library use increased sharply as millions of unemployed hunted for career information and sought light reading fill their enforced leisure hours. (2) Librarians were forced make difficult choices between services, staff, buildings, and books. Libraries responded by forging new partnerships with state and federal agencies and involving community residents in large-scale book drives. experiences of the Chicago Public Library provide a fascinating case study of efforts maintain a public service under trying circumstances. Chicago in the early 1930s was on the brink of collapse. As unemployment soared ah estimated 30 percent, desperate workers took the streets where they were met by tear gas and baton-wielding police. (3) Chicago Public Library's financial fortunes declined rapidly. As early as January 1930, the library predicted a budget shortfall of 20 percent. initial response included reducing library branch hours and laying off about one-fifth of the staff. Prominent progressive reformer Jane Addams evocatively captured the toll of this belt tightening. Writing the library, she noted the unusually large number of men standing in the cold outside the Hull House library, unable get in: They stand looking through the windows into a warm room with a great air of protest which is not always silent. library agreed increase the reading room hours, but made no promises for the future, noting, The unemployment conditions have increased our own work enormously in every part of the city. (4) Facing protests over reduced hours, the library reexamined its priorities. Branch hours were restored and many staff were rehired at reduced salaries. collections budget would be the target for additional cuts. In May 1931 all book ordering was halted. Ah institution that normally expended $200,000 $250,000 a year on collections simply stopped acquiring new materials. In a 1932 letter, the library director, Carl Roden, summarized the situation: are afflicted by the worst financial hardship we have ever suffered. We have bought no books for eight months, the magazine subscriptions for 1932 were cancelled.... No budget for the current year has been attempted and the prospects of funds for even our curtailed activities, are, at this writing, far from encouraging. (5) Some subscriptions were reinstated, but regular book purchasing would not resume for another four years. Despite eliminating new book purchases, the Chicago Public Library was besieged by new users. Branch libraries reported packed reading rooms. army of unemployed came not just forget, but also learn--or, as the Chicago Tribune romantically expressed it, to emerge out of the valley of depression and into the sunlit halls of the kingdom of thought. (6) While the service cuts drew immediate protests, the impact of the slashed book budget only gradually made itself felt. Without new books entice readers, circulation eventually declined, dropping from 15.8 million in 1931 10.2 million in 1935. As one young patron put it, Gosh, we can't read the same one more than three times.(7) While times are different, it's worth remembering that users attracted the library during the current recession may drift away if we are unable provide the resources and services they need. Although extreme, the circumstances in Chicago were not unusual. Detroit saw its library appropriation decline by 24 percent. Knoxvilles budget was slashed 36 percent in three years. Relatively fortunate cities such as Louisville and Springfield, Massachusetts reported salary cuts and other austerity measures,(8) How did public libraries cope? A 1932 survey identified two compensating mechanisms adopted by libraries: rental collections and calls for book donations. …