Iowa Library Service Areas

Enrich Iowa: Fund Libraries

Executive Summary

Iowa has a rich heritage of quality education, and Iowa's public libraries are part of that heritage. The library is the heart of a community, where the scholar or the common person, the school child or the life-long learner, come to secure wisdom and knowledge, to read and reflect.

And Iowans use their public libraries: Iowa ranks 8th in the nation in the number of library materials checked out, 13th in number of library visits. A citizen wants information about starting a business in Iowa; a farmer requests detailed information about alternative crops; a county nurse pursuing a graduate degree leading to a better paying job needs material for a research paper; a grandmother needs medical information about her grandchild's foot deformity; a grade school students needs an article on "jungle music." These five real-life Iowans successfully obtained the information they needed through technology available at their public library.

Unfortunately, not all public libraries in Iowa have this technology. Some libraries can afford electronic access to information; others cannot. When Iowans cannot receive information they need because their library does not have electronic access, it results in a large population of information "have-nots." In a November 13, 1995 interview with Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft Corporation, NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw noted that 'the technology is already out-running the ability of the wider part of society to come to grips with how it wants to use it." Gates replied, "I think the big dialogue will be about how to get it into schools, how to get into libraries, to make sure it's a resource available to everyone."

Public libraries in Iowa receive the majority of their revenue from city and county appropriations. Out of 50 states, 42 have an annual, direct state aid program for public libraries; Iowa does not. Nationally, public libraries receive 12% of their income from state funds; in Iowa, it is only 2%, and that is not direct state aid, but reimbursement for services through the Open Access and Access Plus programs.

Enrich Iowa: Fund Libraries is a proposal for direct state aid to public libraries which will reduce the current inequities in funding. Most important, it will give all Iowans the opportunity to have electronic access to information at their local public library.

Enrich Iowa: Fund Libraries was designed to:

raise the level of public library service in Iowa by providing incentives for improvement;
reduce inequities to access to information for Iowa citizens;
enhance, not replace local funding;
include recognized and adopted library standards with graduate payment levels.

The elements of this $3 million proposal are:

A. Direct Aid to Public Libraries

Base amount ($1,000, $2,000, or $3,000) dependent on compliance with three tiers of standards
Per capital amount ($.20, $.40, or $.60) dependent on compliance with three tiers of standards
Three percent (.03) of the amount of funding received by the library in the previous fiscal year for service to rural residents and to contracting communities. The percentage is the same for all tiers.

B. Information access

Technology and information resources development and coordination.

C. Cooperative, Demonstration and Special Project Grants

An annual competitive grant program for improving service to customers through new and innovative technologies and services, cooperative alliances and enhancement of physical facilities.

D. Implementation

Oversight, assistance to libraries and use of an advisory committee to set direction of the program.

Enrich Iowa will move library service in Iowa closer to the ideal envisioned by library customers, librarians, governmental officials:

"Each Iowan will have equal access to information and ideas in order to lead an enriched life through lifelong learning and to participate knowledgeably and productively in a democratic society."

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