Opinion: Our Libraries Are the Last Free Indoor Places. Fund Them Like It

On a hot afternoon last July, the Eastside branch library had more people inside than at any time since it opened. Not for books — for air conditioning, Wi-Fi and a place to sit without buying anything. Every chair in the reading room was taken. Teenagers sat cross-legged in the aisles with their phones plugged into the few outlets near the floor. An older man dozed in a corner armchair with a newspaper on his lap, and a young mother fed her baby in the children’s section while two older kids worked on a puzzle at her feet. The branch manager later told a city committee that staff had to step outside just to find a quiet place to take a phone call.

That scene is not unusual anymore. Libraries have quietly become the city’s community centers, job offices and cooling centers. Yet their budget has grown more slowly than any other department over the last ten years. It is time for the city to fund them like the essential public places they have become.

The last free indoor places

Think about where a resident can go in this city, indoors, without paying. Coffee shops expect a purchase. Malls are closing or turning into private offices. Community centers charge fees for most programs and keep limited hours. Government buildings let you in only if you have business there, and often only after passing through security.

Libraries are different. Anyone can walk in, sit down and stay for hours. No one asks why you are there. No one expects you to buy a latte. You can use a computer, print a job application, read a magazine, attend a class or simply rest somewhere safe and warm. For a growing number of residents, that makes the library the only free indoor public space they can count on.

What libraries actually do now

Ask most people what a library does and they will say it lends books. That is still true, and still important. But a day at a branch library today looks very different than it did twenty years ago. On a typical weekday, staff at a single branch might:

• Help a laid-off worker set up an email account and upload a resume to a job site.
• Walk an older resident through renewing a benefits application online.
• Run a story time for toddlers and a homework help hour for middle schoolers.
• Host an English conversation group for new arrivals to the city.
• Lend out laptops, mobile hotspots and even tools or musical instruments.
• Offer a cool room during a heat advisory or a warm one during a cold snap.

None of these services appear in the library’s original job description. Libraries took them on because residents needed them and no one else stepped up. Librarians have become informal social workers, tech support staff, tutors and job counselors, often without additional training or pay.

The budget hasn’t kept up

While the work has expanded, the money has not. Over the last ten years, the library’s budget has grown more slowly than that of any other city department. Adjusted for rising costs, branches are doing far more with roughly the same resources they had a decade ago.

The results are visible to anyone who uses them. Several branches close at 6 p.m. on weekdays, before many working parents can get there. Most are closed on Sundays, the one day many families have free. Staff vacancies stay open for months. Computers are old and slow. Air conditioning systems at two branches broke down last summer, on exactly the days they were needed most.

What a modest increase would buy

For about $4 per resident per year, every branch could stay open until 8 p.m. and on Sundays. That is roughly the price of a single coffee, once a year, in exchange for evenings and weekends at a public place that serves everyone.

Longer hours are not a luxury. They are when many residents can actually use the library. A high school student who works an after-school shift needs a quiet place to study at 7 p.m. A parent who works until 5:30 needs time to bring kids to pick out books. A job seeker who spends weekdays at interviews needs a computer on Sunday afternoon to send follow-up emails.

A modest increase could also cover several smaller improvements that add up quickly:

1. Fill open staff positions so branches are not stretched thin.
2. Replace aging public computers and expand hotspot lending.
3. Repair air conditioning and heating so branches can reliably serve as cooling and warming centers.
4. Add part-time social services staff at the busiest branches to help residents connect with housing, health and job programs.

A city shows what it values by where it keeps the lights on.

The Editorial Board

None of this requires a new building or a fancy program. It requires paying the people who already do the work and keeping the doors open when residents can actually come. That is a modest ask for a service that touches so many lives.

Answering the objections

Some will say the city cannot afford new spending. Budgets are tight, and every department has a case for more money. That is fair. But libraries are among the least expensive public services the city provides, and they reach a wider range of residents than almost any other. A small increase here buys a great deal of public good.

Others will argue that libraries should not be doing social service work at all, and that the city should fund other agencies to handle those needs instead. In an ideal world, perhaps. But people go where they feel welcome, and right now that is the library. Supporting the staff who already meet residents there is more practical than hoping those residents will find their way to an office across town.

A smart investment

There is also a practical case for funding libraries well. When residents can find jobs, complete applications, keep children reading over the summer and stay safe during heat waves, the whole city benefits. Those outcomes are hard to measure in a single budget year, but they show up in stronger neighborhoods, better school readiness and fewer emergency calls on dangerously hot days.

Key takeaway: about $4 per resident per year would keep every branch open until 8 p.m. and on Sundays. Few public investments reach so many people for so little.

Keep the lights on

The council will take up the library budget next month as part of the annual budget process. We urge members to approve the increase needed to extend evening and Sunday hours at every branch, and to commit to keeping library funding in step with the work libraries actually do.

Residents can help, too. Attend a budget hearing. Write to your council member. Tell them about the last time you or someone you know used a library for something other than borrowing a book. Those stories matter, because they show what a library has become.

Last July, the Eastside branch did exactly what a city needs on its hottest days. It opened its doors, turned on the air and welcomed everyone. The least we can do is make sure it has the hours and the staff to keep doing that work all year long.