Recovery Act: Senator Klobuchar’s Response

Following is the response from one of our Senators (MN) regarding our letter urging the addition of support for the PUBLIC LIBRARY in the recovery act. While the response clearly articulates Senator Klobuchar’s response, it is likely an auto-response since the specifics of our letter requesting public library funding is not mentioned. The Recovery Act mentions “public libraries” only in the section entitled H.R.1-14: National Telecommunications and Information Administration. There is no mention of funding for public library construction. Despite this, we appreciate Ms Klobuchar’s efforts.

From Senator Klobuchar:

Thank you for contacting me about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this matter. Wherever I go, Minnesotans tell me how deeply concerned they are about the state of our economy – and about when and how we’ll get out of this economic crisis.

This legislation is the first important step towards getting our country’s economy back on track. Last month, the American economy lost another 598,000 jobs – which is roughly equivalent to all the jobs in the state of Maine – and the national unemployment rate jumped to 7.6 percent. Industries across the board – from manufacturing and construction to retail and financial services – are shedding jobs. In Minnesota, the unemployment rate is at 7.6 percent, the highest it’s been in over 20 years.

As President Obama recently said, “The time for talk is over. The time for action is now.” If we didn’t act, I believe a bad situation was sure to become dramatically worse. And I believe it’s about time Main Street, instead of Wall Street, benefited from a recovery plan.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a major first step in our efforts to give our economy the jolt it needs in the near term while also building the foundation for longer-term prosperity.

At the core of this legislation is jobs. It is forecast to save or create 3.5 million jobs, including an estimated 66,000 jobs in Minnesota. It will put Americans to work by rebuilding our roads, bridges and schools, by investing in homegrown renewable energy, and by expanding our high-speed Internet infrastructure.

In addition to creating jobs, this plan provides tax relief to middle-class families, including a tax cut for more than 2 million working families in Minnesota. It also gives critical support to states and communities so they can ensure a safety net for families hurt by the economic downturn.

The Recovery Act invests $150 billion in our infrastructure, including nearly $600 million in Minnesota, so we can rebuild bridges and highways that have been neglected for far too long. The Federal Highway Administration estimates that every $1 billion of highway spending creates nearly 35,000 new jobs.

As we put the recovery package together, I worked to make sure we didn’t just look at the physical infrastructure of this country, but also the technological infrastructure. That’s why the recovery package includes $7 billion to expand our high-speed Internet infrastructure, which will create jobs and help ensure that our communities, especially our rural communities, have the tools they need to compete in the global economy. This is especially important in our state, where we are ranked only 44th out of 50 states when it comes to Internet speed.

The Recovery Act will also create jobs across the spectrum by investing more than $37 billion in the new energy economy. This investment will not only help jumpstart our economy, but double our capacity to produce homegrown renewable energy – which will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

This plan also makes a historic investment in our schools, providing nearly $106 billion for education initiatives. This important funding will modernize our schools, help prevent teacher layoffs and devastating cuts to education, expand critical early childhood education programs and make college more affordable. Our investment in education will not only save and create jobs, but create a better learning environment for our children.

Some of the most important aspects of this legislation are its investments in health care. I led the charge in the Senate to make sure Minnesota and other states which had seen recent increases in unemployment got their fair share of Medicaid funding. Overall, this bill will help more than 20 million Americans keep their health care.

While I don’t believe the bill is perfect, I knew we couldn’t afford endless debates and delays while the economy worsened with each passing day. We all know the economy will not turn around overnight. But we also know that the time for action is now.

Please visit http://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/mneconomicrecovery.cfm to read a full summary of this act.

I want to thank you for contacting our office and caring so much about our country to do so. We are living in turbulent times and history will judge whether our decisions were right or wrong, courageous or timid. I believe supporting the economic recovery package was the best thing to do to move our economy – and our country – forward.

Sincerely,

Amy Klobuchar
United States Senator

Financial advice @ your local library

On NPR’s Weekend Edition today, there was a terrific story about people seeking and receiving financial advice from the local library. This story highlights the crucial importance of the library in a free society. No other institution offers services that are neutral to socio-economic need.

A number of libraries around the country are getting grants to train librarians and set up programs to teach people about investing through a collaboration between FINRAand the American Library Association. Gannon says his organization turned to libraries because libraries have the ability to reach large numbers of people who may need help with their money.

You can read/listen to the story here: http://www-cdn.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101268021

Ames Tribune Editorial

Story from the Ames Tribune
Skepticism is healthy; hostility isn’t

The stereotype of your average library patron probably goes a little like this: He or she is educated, bookish, politely quiet, a sort that reflects the kind of hushed studiousness of the traditional library atmosphere.

That didn’t seem to be the type of person who showed up for the first public meeting about the proposed library expansion Monday night.

For more of this story, click on or type the URL below:

Healthy Skepticism

The necessity and obligation to innovate

Sean Wagner, our director of sustainable innovation, has posted the February 11, 2009 story from  Business Week:

Obama Needs a Secretary of Innovation
Federal relief alone won’t sustain the economy. A new Cabinet position would help to sharpen the focus on the innovation needed in the U.S.-and worldwide By Thomas D. Kuczmarski

Here is Sean’s thoughtful reflection on this idea:

In a recent article in Business Week, Thomas Kuczmarski makes a case for the creation of a new cabinet level office in the Obama Administration – the Secretary of Innovation. Kuczmarski does a wonderful job of defining an often over-used idea: “Innovation is not invention, nor is it the result of a eureka moment. The innovation process, properly done, begins with research to identify needs, wants, and problems and then addresses them in a way that draws upon many different disciplines and functions. Innovation breaks through a business-as-usual mindset, revealing an array of opportunities with a high probability of success.”

As the Director of Sustainable Design at MS&R, I answer questions daily about implementing LEED – of how to move a design team through a process of achieving points and credits towards a goal of receiving green building certification. For me we are in a period of high energy, and in spite of the state of the economy, I have never been busier, and honestly more professionally satisfied. Clients and design team are engaged in an open discussion about how to change the fundamental ways we conduct the business of design and construction. For me, this is a gift. Sustainable design has opened up a door of opportunity to architects, engineers, and owners to begin asking questions about our needs and wants, about the way we as a culture consume resources, and about the way we see our generational relationships. But is this innovation, or simply evolution?

During the 2007 Library Journal Deign Institute in Chicago, I asked the following question of the audience: “How can the design of your library positively impact global climate change?” This question is now more relevant than ever. Why? As library directors and architects, we are now faced with the burden of opportunity – will we choose …”to hunker down…and avoid risk-taking”..? Or can we ask the difficult questions, can we begin to imagine the future of our organizations? Can we lead a process that brings together the needs and wants of different – and often unequal – voices in our communities? Do we have the will to set and live within an energy budget for our buildings? What we need are, as Kuczmarski put it: “cross-functional teams in the search for breakthrough ideas so that innovation is seen as an organization wide effort, not the product of yet another silo.”

Designing libraries is never an easy proposition, just ask anyone who has been a champion. There is little doubt that designing libraries in the midst of this economy will bring more unique challenges. Whether or not the Obama Administration sees its way clear to name a Secretary of Innovation in Washington, DC – we have the opportunity to find that courage and vision in each of ourselves, in the projects that we work on, and in our communities. Designing innovative and sustainable libraries today will require courage and a vision of a brighter future – a future for our communities and for the generations that we serve.

 

Response to Star Tribune article on Lois Langer Thompson

In an article in  the February 22, 2009 Minneapolis Saint Paul Star Tribune featuring the new Hennepin County Library Director, Lois Langer Thompson (click here for article link Star Tribune) she is quoted:

“I really enjoyed connecting people with what they needed. What I like about libraries is that we don’t make a judgment about why people need something. We just help them find what they need. It’s about a democratic society … open ideas, open access.”  This is the heart and soul of a library. To do this now, in these mean times, will be incredibly tough. We wish Lois well in her quest. 

Lois is quoted in the article, “People think you’re not a library if you don’t have [certain things]. But is that still true?”  We know from years of public hearings and working with libraries across the country that the public library is defined by each and every library user as they themselves want it to be.  Our experience shows that people will not pay much attention to broad administrative goals–and justifications for cuts to the budget. If they get what they personally want, they will be happy. If they don’t they won’t. We know that change will always be a constant at the library. After all, the card catalogue was correctly ported to an electronic search system (albeit different ones for Minneapolis and Hennepin–scheduled to be aligned later in the year.) Hennepin County even used to have permission from the NFL to tape Monday Night Football for patrons to see (before the ubiquity of the VCR in the late 1970’s). 

One of the newest challenges comes in aligning the virtual and the real. Over the years, one can easily track many technological changes that have  necessitated a shift in the way our libraries have responded to community needs. Gone are 16mm film lending, fast disappearing are VHS tapes (already gone in some library systems)–but added are licenses for audio book downloads.

It is important to note that no government system (like a library) can do everything for everyone all the time. So, leaders like Lois have to make choices–sometimes really tough ones. And inevitably choices are criticized when they do not align with what a person wants or thinks is fair. Luckily for the citizens of Hennepin County, the library system’s budget (even with the 10% cut that is proposed) is one of the best in the United States on a per capita basis. Having worked in over 20 states, we know first hand how much the Hennepin County  Library is respected and how rich its offerings are. Our feeling is that Lois and her leadership team will make appropriate choices. Since it is anyone’s guess where this current flavor of technology will take us, we urge caution and not placing too much faith in technology solutions–and fighting for the people side of the equation. More than ever people need people–and the community is defined by how people help people. A book in a library, chosen by a staff member or placed there in response to a customer request, will, on average circulate 25 times. This is incredibly sustainable.  

What distinguishes Hennepin County from many other library systems is that they care deeply and work very hard to listen. MS&R’s CEO, Jeffrey Scherer is the the former chair of the Library Foundation of Hennepin County and and the firm has worked on several of their libraries over the past 30 years. We have always found them to be considerate,  thoughtful and open to innovation. We have faith that Lois and her team will find the right balance. We wish them well and know when our society emerges from this current economic trough, the library will still be there, in tact, to meet our many and varied individual needs.