How to Reform the Salem Public Library

If you live in Salem, getting a better city library is as easy as voting no on Measure 24-514, a bait-and-switch omnibus levy before voters on May 20th. Will its defeat shut down the library? No.

It might pave the way for better library service. This is not a vote for expanded services. Instead, it’s a vote to sustain the status quo. I’m not that impressed with the Salem library, which appears to be deficient in the basics because it spends so much time and effort on things beyond providing the public good of shared books and periodicals. The dire cuts the city warns against, if this levy fails, are primarily cuts to services beyond shared reading materials.

If this measure passes, the Salem library will still:

• Operate for limited hours: it’s closed on Mondays, opens late, and closes early on days the library runs.
• Move new periodicals from receiving to the floor late: if you show up when the library opens at 10 am, it’s very likely the New York Times on display will be yesterday’s. Indeed, if I walk over there from work on my lunch, that tends to still be the case.
• Have few reference materials: I first noticed this defect when I asked a librarian where the Value Line Investment Survey was. I was surprised when a library of this size not only didn’t subscribe to it, but the librarian had never heard of one of the most-read reference sources at any major library. Over the course of my life, I’ve spent a fair amount of time waiting in line to use Value Line at the Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington county libraries. If teenage me could read this at the tiny library in Sandy, Oregon, why can’t middle-age me find it at the much bigger budgeted library in Salem?
• Have a dearth collection of books: I’ve almost given up checking Salem’s shelves, because they so rarely have what I’m looking for. The most recent example of this is Edmund Morgan’s classic American Slavery, American Freedom. This scholarly history book is widely cited by progressives writing about race relations. Somehow, books like this don’t stay on Salem Library’s shelves. I don’t know how their procurement works, but the Salem Library just doesn’t seem to have the books I look for.

These defects don’t result from a lack of funds. The Salem Library lacks focus on the core mission of being a library. Instead, they blow a lot of money trying to be a:

• School: The first floor is more like a community college, holding many events for adults and running a computer lab. If you go up to the second floor, you might think you’ve walked into Salem Keizer School District property with all the classes for kids that are offered. The basement consists of more classrooms and what is effectively a lunchroom.
• Play area: The sheer amount of toys for kids to play with is remarkable. The second floor has three separate play areas for kids to play with toys.
• Social services center: In addition to serving as a homeless shelter, the library even provides free goods and runs clothing exchanges.
• DEI venue: They host many speakers and educational displays that predominantly cover progressive race theory and sometimes gender theory. The Salem Library’s operations are devoted to hosting many events, which are more likely to be on slavery than on Shakespeare.

To give you a further sense of what this library is focused on, here’s a recent email I received for events this week:

• March Into Nonfiction – Last Chance for Book Pickup!
  Choose a free book to keep: Through Wednesday, April 30
  Readers and listeners (ages 0-18) who read from and tracked at least four different nonfiction categories in March can turn in their tracker and choose a free prize book! Learn more
• Youth and Young Adult Coordinated Entry Program Visit
  11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday, April 29 | Floor 1
  Navigators from the Youth and Young Adult Coordinated Entry Program will be available to assist people ages 14-24 with housing and other needs. Learn more
• Tinker Tech Tuesday for Kids
  4:30-5:45 p.m. Tuesday, April 29 | Story Room B
  Kids through grade 5 with an adult are invited to check out and explore a STEAM kit for 30-minute sessions. Learn more
• Preschool Storytime For children ages 2 1/2 to 6
  10:15-10:40 a.m. Wednesday, April 30 | Story Room A
  Stories, songs, and movement. Pick up storytime tickets at the Children’s Corner Desk beginning at 10 a.m. Learn more
• Infant/Toddler Storytime For babies and toddlers up to ages 2 1/2
  11-11:20 a.m. Wednesday, April 30 | Story Room A
  Stories, songs, and rhymes. Pick up storytime tickets at the Children’s Corner Desk beginning at 10:45 a.m. Learn more
• Children’s Clothing Swap
  11 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday, April 30 | Anderson Rooms A&B
  Bring wearable clothes in sizes preemie to 6T and take home clothes in a size that will fit your kiddo. Bags of clothes (one per person) are accepted beginning at 10 a.m. Free. Donations are not required to participate. Learn more
• Fiesta de Día para Las Familias/Día Party for Families
  4-5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 30 | Story Rooms A&B
  Kids and their grownups are invited to Day of the Child/Day of the Book with music, dancing, crafts, games, small prizes, and snacks. Free. No signup is needed. Learn more
• English as a Second Language Beginner Class
  3-4:30 p.m. Thursday, May 1 | Collaboration Studio
  This multilingual beginner-level ESL class is taught by instructors from Goodwill Industries in the Columbia Willamette. Free. No sign up needed. New students always welcome. Learn more
• Sensory Storytime for Children
  4-4:30 p.m. Thursday, May 1 | Story Room A
  This adaptive storytime in a relaxing and calming environment is recommended for children with sensory processing sensitivities. Free. Drop in. Learn more
• Preschool Storytime For children ages 2 1/2 to 6
  10:15-10:40 a.m. Friday, May 2 | Story Room A
  Stories, songs, and movement. Pick up storytime tickets at the Children’s Corner Desk beginning at 10 a.m. Learn more
• Infant/Toddler Storytime For babies and toddlers up to ages 2 1/2
  11-11:20 a.m. Friday, May 2 | Story Room A
  Stories, songs, and rhymes. Pick up storytime tickets at the Children’s Corner Desk beginning at 10:45 a.m. Learn more
• Tween Party Planning Game Grades 3-6
  2-3 p.m. Friday, May 2 | Story Rooms A&B
  It’s a school grading day, so tweens looking for something fun and engaging to are invited to plan the perfect party in this life sim financial planning game! Free. Sign up and learn more
• Healing Heart of Lushootseed Documentary screening
  6-7:30 p.m. Friday, May 2 | Loucks Auditorium
  Learn how an Upper Skagit elder set out to heal the heart of the world through music, in collaboration with the Seattle Symphony and indigenous musicians. This will be followed by a discussion led by the documentary’s creator, Jill La Pointe. Free. First-come, first-seated. Learn more
• Russian Storytime/Время Сказки (на русском)
  11-11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 3 | Story Room A
  Join us for stories for young listeners and their grownups performed in Russian by Lola Burkovskaya. Learn more

I don’t mean to imply these events are bad. The problem is that they are beyond the core mission of a library. The city is making a policy mistake in not fully funding basic library services before providing expensive other services. The levy is being advocated for as critical to having a municipal library at all when it’s really a bundle of other things, while still not fully funding library services.

Voting no could then help reform Salem’s library. If the levy fails, they will cut these extras. That will provide an opportunity to grow library funding later, which is focused on providing a collection of robust reading materials to the public.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.