Call to Action: Week 2 | Save Sioux City Public Library Funding

Let's Keep Up the Pressure

The Issue

The Sioux City City Council is proposing to cut the Public Library’s $4 million annual budget by $2 million/year by 2028—a 50% reduction. If enacted, these cuts could:

Close both the Morningside and Perry Creek branch locations
Eliminate the Hot Spot internet lending program
Reduce hours and lay off library staff

The City Council will vote on the budget on March 18. YOUR VOICE MATTERS NOW.

What You Can Do

Call your council members. All council members—Mayor Bob Scott, Mayor Pro Tem Julie Schoenherr, Councilmember Rick Bertrand, Councilmember Craig Berenstein and Councilmember Ike Rayford—can be reached at: (712) 279-6102.
Send them email. You can also email council members individually or send a message to all of them at once on their website.
Attend a council meeting and speak up. Council meetings are held the first four Mondays of every month at 4 p.m. in Council Chambers on the 5th Floor of City Hall. The final meeting where you will have an opportunity to speak will be on Monday, March 16, where you can attend in person to speak during the Citizen Concerns portion of the meeting.

Below is a list of terrific talking points provided by Linda Santi. We encourage you to see which of them resonate most with you and use three or four of them in your communications with Council members, in person and in your calls and letters.

Timing's bad - let the new Director get hired
Main is uniquely built to be suited as a library with loadbearing reinforcement necessary to hold volumes of books
Branches used to be throughout community - don't make us suffer whiplash as we change direction under different City Councils
Library provides workforce development services
Library provides youth services
Library provides WiFi connectivity for folk who otherwise don't have
Main is a vital community meeting space
Main Libraries are necessary to house admin services and as hub for supportive services for branches
You got the Library's attention - now step back and let a new Director do their job
Bookmobile could more efficiently serve neighbors - bring one back
Main is close to other human services and transportation systems - strategically located
More personnel would be needed to staff more sites
More expensive in the long run to have four sites
Hours are better understood with Main having Sunday and evening hours
Best bang for the buck as far as community services at the Library
Library personnel already go out to schools and various neighborhoods; this all currently shows up as a Main Library expense
If you want major changes, you need to be more strategic about it - hire library service professionals to conduct studies regarding where branches should be and what size is needed
It is fiscally irresponsible to start slashing ONE department's budget by 25% while giving big businesses incentives
As libraries face attacks across the country, this plays into the sort of anti-intellectual warfare that drives away businesses and individual looking for places to relocate
The Main Library is critical to support families trying to raise involved, interested, and aware citizens
The true costs of branches isn't reflected in the budget so Council is basing decisions on misunderstandings
Don't play neighborhoods off each other ("wouldn't Leeds or the Westside like a library of their own?")
Cost of closing a Main Library, divesting of books, opening up two new spaces, building to suit, moving books in, creating adequate parking, finding public transit nexus, etc. etc. etc. is prohibitive
Four small libraries don't create critical mass or have space for large meetings - 4 small places don't allow dexterity that 1 large and couple small afford
21^st Century libraries can respond to community concerns in vital ways that save taxpayer dollars
Don't rent buildings; own them. The City owns the Main Library building.
Library patrons are voters