Sorry State of Affairs

By Joanne Cox

The library systems have been a vital part of our library programs and services in Illinois. We were famous for our great library systems. That all changed on Friday, May 28, 2010 when the majority of services that we received from the Alliance Library System were discontinued due to the lack of funding caused by the Illinois financial situation. Many of you have questioned what that will mean to the Lillie M. Evans Library District.

First, what it doesn’t mean:

• We will not stop delivering the very best service we can give you.
• We will continue to supply books, DVDs, audio books, databases, programs, and our great website that provides day or night connection to our library. Our libraries will still cooperate with each other to provide materials to you.
• Delivery and our automated catalog are not affected at this time.
• Our current staff will remain to serve you.

What we will no longer have access to without the system:

• Consulting services available when we need it, blogs, notices, the system’s excellent consulting staff.
• The opportunities for getting together and partnering with other libraries in an organized setting to work on grants and other projects.
• Continuing Education opportunities. The library resources and the needs of the community are constantly changing. The library system provided countless opportunities for improved skills through workshops, seminars, webinars, and training classes. Most of them were offered at no cost to either participants or to their library.
• Group purchases. The system gave us cost breaks by negotiating better prices for the group. There are price breaks that can be very significant to our budget.

The library was one of the founding libraries of our system when Princeville joined with six other libraries to form the Illinois Valley Film Cooperative. That later became the basis for the Illinois Valley Library System when the legislature passed the Illinois Library System Act in 1964. In 1994, four systems combined to create the Alliance Library System which served over 250 libraries in west central Illinois.

It is a very sad day to see a successful method of supporting local libraries that took over 40 years to establish come to such an end.