Re: [Mpls] Library - Hennepin County vs. Minneapolis

[Becker]

Title: RE: [Mpls] Library - Hennepin County vs. Minneapolis

It seems that every time something controversial comes up with the library, someone brings up consolidating the Minneapolis library system with the Hennepin County library system.    This hasn't happened for three reasons:   1) It would cost a boatload of money.  The two library systems use different computer systems and different systems for classifying books (Dewey vs Library of Congress).  Conversion costs for the computer systems alone have been estimated in the millions to tens of millions of dollars. I have never seen an estimate of the cost for reclassifying all million plus of the books, but it would be enormous.  There would also be chaos as this was going on, requiring organizing the books in two different ways simultaneously.    The savings from a merger would be slim, possibly saving the cost of the board and a couple of administrators.  Support departments are sized for out libraries (like the bindery for example) and could not be done away with in a merger.  Libraries are not something that have a lot of overhead, as each is headed by a librarian who is out working with patrons, staff, books, and fixed building costs.  These would not anywhere approach the cost of merging the two systems.    The only way you save any appreciable amount of money is to close libraries. Hennepin County has taken the approach of having large regional centers rather than smaller community libraries.  It would be expected that libraries would have to close in order to pay for any merger.    2) You have two systems with very different philosophies.  The Hennepin County system is much more focused on popular literature while Minneapolis focuses much more on special populations.  When the last Harry Potter came out, they ordered 700 copies. We on the other hand buy a lot of books in Spanish and Somali, research materials, and other things that probably are never going to have the circulation levels of a Harry Potter but are critical to the populations that are using them.  This philosophical difference would be expected to change if the two libraries merged, to the detriment of many groups in the City.    3) Two-thirds of Hennepin County is not in Minneapolis.  Because of this, you have to expect that when it comes to votes on where resources get allocated, we won't win.  This  is why there are services (like parks for example) that we could merge but have not.    Carol Becker Longfellow