By Mike Russo
The Nassau Library System — one of 23 library systems in the state — functions as the infrastructure for its member libraries, providing services such as employee training, library-to-library delivery and online cataloging and facilitating communication between libraries. Often, facilities save money by purchasing a software program or database as a group through the system.
Maria Sysak, director of the Baldwin Public Library, says it is especially important nowadays to provide the best service possible to the community, because statistics indicate that library use tends to increase during tough economic times. Many residents borrow books and movies from a library instead of buying them, Sysak explained, so it's incumbent on the library to ensure that a given item is available. If a book can’t be found at the Baldwin facility, a librarian can request that it be delivered from another library in the county system — within a day or two, in most cases.
"We want that book to be there when we reach for it," said Sysak. "If it's not, you're taking a giant step back in service."
The Baldwin library's Web site was created by the Nassau Library System, though Baldwin library officials are in charge of updating it. The online catalog, however, is maintained by the county system, and it would be very unfortunate to lose such a useful program, Sysak said.
She is also concerned about the children's programs, she said, because the training provided by the county system is essential to educating a child at the library. "It's more than pulling a book off a shelf and reading to the child," Sysak said. "It's the training to be able to engage a student."
The library is just as useful to adults, she said, especially with so many people out of work. The library hosts a number of job-related programs, including courses on interview techniques, career counseling and job fairs. Much of the training needed to run such programs is provided by the Nassau Library System.
If the cuts are approved by the state Legislature, Sysak said, the system would have difficulty providing the same level of service. In theory, one way to make up the difference would be for individual libraries to budget a percentage of the loss in their annual spending plans, but the burden would then be on county taxpayers.
The library systems will be hit particularly hard by state cuts because they have been underfunded by the state over the last decade, Sysak said, though there were small increases in 2006 and 2007. But aid was reduced by 6 percent last year, and, combined with the proposed 18 percent cut this year, the Nassau Library System is looking at the elimination of nearly a quarter of its funding.
Sysak said that while librarians tend to be viewed as quiet and nonconfrontational, she and her colleagues have learned over the years that they need to fight for whatever help they can get from the state. She was planning to drive to Albany on Tuesday with several other Nassau County library directors to lobby state lawmakers not to approve the 18 percent cut.
"We learned that we had to be a little more vocal about what libraries do," said Sysak. "We are important as an educational resource and active in the job search and career counseling. We want to make sure that we're available to people that have hit a stumbling block."
Comments about this story? MRusso@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
