Archive: News

Friends of the Library President Donna Scott is frustrated with accusations that nobody uses the library.  If people believe that rumor she fears they will vote to abolish the library on Tuesday.  She is fighting back by releasing statistics (see her Letter to the Editor ) that show exactly how many people use the facility, materials used, program attendance, and more.  Library supporters are doing their best to get the facts out, and get taxpayers to vote on Tuesday.

The Friends of the Library is an independent group that raises funds and provides support to the library.  It is separate from the Board of Directors, which is the official body that oversees and runs the facility.

If the vote goes against the library its assets are redistributed by New York State, and she says that, realistically, will be the end of the library and ten years of hard work building it.  Scott talked to the Lansing Star last Tuesday to talk about what the library has contributed to the Lansing community and why voters should say 'No' to its abolition.

Lansing Star: Why should people vote 'No'?

Donna Scott: That will defeat the proposition to abolish the Lansing Community Library.  They need to vote 'no' because if the library is abolished, unfortunately due to State Law 268 it will be closed.  All of the assets of the library -- materials, books, computers, furniture, and other equipment -- would be seized by New york State and distributed to other public entities.  There would be nothing left but an empty building.

We've been told by New York State Education Department authorities that because we're a chartered library that the charter would probably be removed because we wouldn't be getting tax support.  Therefore Lansing Community Library would be no more.

People should want the library for many reasons.  We're now up to about 2,900 card-carrying patrons.  That's from a culled list -- it's not some old list we had from six years ago.  It's a recent list. 

We're able to keep track of that a lot better now that we have the Polaris software system that integrates us with the Fingerlakes Library System.  This library now has the capability to let people take out materials from 33 different libraries all over the Finger Lakes area.  They can even do it from home now.  People can come here and use the computer in the lobby to search that system as well, so it puts huge amounts of material at their fingertips.

Now that we have an energetic library manager and a part time clerk who are very knowledgeable about everything from computers and the Internet to all sorts of Library things, the services here are much better than they were before.  I had no idea what a difference it would make to have a professional librarian.

Susie and Paula have made a huge difference here.  They mapped out the new arrangement all out and we did it over a weekend.  But now we have a lot more comfortable space to sit in and work in.  They have great new ways to display things.  And they're displaying so much more stuff that we couldn't do before, because we didn't have people to do it.

LS: Why do we need a library in Lansing when we have one in downtown Ithaca?

DS: We've had many people say to us -- not just elderly people who would be more hesitant to go downtown because of the traffic and parking and walking too far -- a lot of mothers with young children don't like to go down there.  Also it's just so nice to have a local library right near home.  You only drive a couple of miles and you're there.  There are also a lot of programs offered here locally.  Toddler story hour, the children's summer reading program that we've had every year the library has been in existance.  It's tremendously helpful to children keeping up in school the following fall -- and a lot of fun over the summer.  All for free.


We have a lot of adult and family programs, mostly in the evenings.  Now that we have a secure funding base we don't have to spend time fundraising just to run the place.  The program people are the same people who were the fundraisers, so we have time to organize more programs.

Another thing that I think is very valuable is the 'High School Helpers' program.  We have five teenagers from the Lansing schools who work here a couple of hours a week.  Their salaries are paid through a grant by Cooperative Extension that helps students learn job skills.  The work they do is necessary and helpful.  It's not just make-work.  It helps us as well as them.

LS: Some people have criticized putting it on the tax roles on the basis that people who don't want to use the library still have to pay for it.  Why should they pay this tax?

DS: I pay for a lot of things on my tax bill that I don't use either.  I've paid for years for many different sports and recreation programs.  I've never used them once, yet I see the value of such programs.  I don't begrudge it, and I pay the tax for that.  Not everything we get taxed for is used by every person who pays tax.  I think that for the good of society we need things like libraries and sports programs.  They are two good things that help people bring a balance to their lives.

We all know that physical education and physical activity is good for people, but also reading and taking part in educational programs is very good for you all through your life in many ways.

I think we get a lot for the library tax, and this tax, unlike a lot of other taxes, does not go up and up and up because we have a fixed budget.  This tax can never go up until we take it to a public vote.

LS: What happens if the 'Yeses' win?  What happens next?

DS: I understand that some time in August the process to obliterate the assets of the library would begin.  It wouldn't be some time way in the future.  It's going to start this summer if this proposition passes.

TCPL (Tompkins County Public Library) has nothing to do with this.  This is the New York State Department of Education.  There has been some misinformation out there that TCPL can just let us be a reading room again.  But they don't have anything to do with this at all.  The New York State Department of Education and the Regents govern what goes on here.

We didn't put this stuff out just because we wanted this to be true to try to force people to vote our way.  I've talked to officials in Albany in the New York State Education Department  about this.  We know something like this is going to happen.  How it works exactly, I don't know.

For one thing no library in New York State has ever been voted out of existance like this.  It's never been done before.  This is a horrible precedent for New York State and the New York State Education Department is quite concerned about what might happen here.

LS: What would library supporters do once all of that has happened?

DS: You mean volunteers like me?

LS: Yes, would you try to do any more or is it done?

DS: No.  We've done this three times now, this vote.  Even though the school board had been considering it on its own for the last couple of years, we're rather glad that you now have to be a registered voter in the school district.  It makes that part of voting seem more secure to everybody.  So that was a good thing.

But to make this library the victim of this process, to me, just seems horrible.

When the two votes were held in May and December of 2007 they were legal.  That's the way, historically, we always voted on school ballots at the time.  I never saw anything wrong with it.  It was always that way wherever I lived the entire time I have voted in Tompkins County, which is many, many years.

In larger cities they went to everybody being registered voters.  Now that it's done I think that's a good thing.  I don't find any fault with that.

I just think it is so anti-community to vote against an obviously thriving library that so many people seem to value and really like.  We have so many services.  We have so much good going on here.  We've spent so much time building it up.  The building is all paid for.  The tax rate is down to 12.6 cents per thousand, or probably even less by now.  In December of 2007 we estimated it was going to be 15 cents per thousand dollars of property assessment.  By the time we paid the tax in September of 2008 that rate was down to 12.6 cents per thousand.

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