[BHC] Detroiters and Non-Detroiters: We Will All Suffer

[John P. DuLong]

Folks,

My fear is that the usage fee issue will divide the Detroit and non-Detroit
patrons of the Burton Historical Collection.  We have to stand together.  If
the usage fee is imposed, then many, if not most, non-Detroiters will stop
using the Burton and donating to it.  They will shift their research to the
Library of Michigan and the Allen County Public Library.  The fewer patrons
using the Burton, the easier it will be for the library administration to
justify further staff and budget cuts to the Burton.  These cuts will only
further endanger the long-term future of the Burton.

It is fundamentally unfair for the state to remove the funding for the
Detroit Public Library.  But rather than driving another wedge between
Detroiters and non-Detroiters, we should be working together to see the
state funding restored.

In the past the Advocates for the Burton Historical Collection have asked
their legislators not to cut the state funding but to implement oversight
measures to insure that the money is properly spent.  Given the financial
scandal at the library this only seemed the prudent thing to ask for.  Last
year we wrote letters to our legislators to restore the state funding.

During this recent round of budget planning the Advocates did not write
letters supporting the library because we did not know about the current
struggle.  This is mostly my fault because I had pulled away from the
library issues and had not kept my eye on the ball.

Just a few days before the Detroit Library Commission decided to impose a
usage fee I received information about the current state budget struggle.
This information came to me through an Advocate with one of the genealogical
societies; not from the library administration.  However, it arrived too
late to mobilize the Advocates to help.

Why did the library administration not enlist the help of the Advocates to
write to our state legislators when there was a chance we could do some
good?  Ms. Skowronski and several other library administrators are on our
email list.  We are only an email away.

I am attaching a copy of a letter I wrote to Ms. Skowronski, the Director of
the Detroit Public Library, back in 2003 offering to help in the campaign to
restore state funding (see the last paragraph).  Neither Ms. Skowronski or
any other Detroit Public Library official has ever bothered to contact me or
the Advocates' email list.  Nor am I aware of any general appeal the library
administration made to the public to support their case for state funding.

This usage fee policy was made without consulting us, the patrons of the
other special collections, the Burton Historical Collection staff, the staff
of the other special collections, the boards and trustees of the special
collections, or the Friends of the Detroit Public Library. It was a
unilateral decision to punish the most vocal patrons and to send a message
to Lansing.  But it is a policy that has already backfired.  This will only
create more bad public relations for the library and will not impress the
legislators.

In closing I am making a plea that we all stick together.  We are historians
and genealogists, not Detroiters and non-Detroiters.  When the usage fee
policy is rescinded we should all work together to see that the state
funding is restored.


Here is the letter:

Advocates for the Burton Historical Collection


31 May 2003


Ms. Nancy Skowronski
Director
Detroit Public Library
5201 Woodward Ave.
Detroit, MI 48202


Dear Ms. Skowronski,

On behalf of the Advocates for the Burton Historical Collection, I would
like to congratulate you on your appointment as the Director of the Detroit
Public Library.  We wish you the best of luck in your new position.

I am sure you share our concern to protect and improve the Burton Historical
Collection.  We would like to work with you to return this special
collection to its premier position in the state and region.

As you may have noticed, we have been active in trying to get the state
funding restored to the Detroit Public Library.  Please let me know if there
is anything else that the Advocates can do to help restore this funding.

Sincerely,




John P. DuLong, Ph.D.
Chair of the Advocates for the
Burton Historical Collection
959 Oxford Road
Berkley, MI 48072-2011

(313) 916-2550, work
(248) 541-2894, home
(313) 874-4730, fax
dulongj at habitant.org
http://habitant.org/bhc