One day about 8 years ago one of the ladies in my hometown library stopped me and asked if she could use my library card collection for a display. It must have been a slow news week because the local paper did a write up about my collection. The paper has a nice website which is where the story was picked up by the American Libraries Magazine.
This might be a good place to talk about the political forces at play in libraries. Funding is always an issue. How libraries are funded plays a large part in whether I can get a library card or not. If I am in Ohio it is very easy. I have several library cards from Ohio libraries that are good cards. That means my information and card number are in their system and I can check out books. Not so in Indiana! Normally the cards I collect are not entered into the system so the card is useless for checking out books or other library services. Giving me a noncirculating card just means that one of the card numbers will not be recorded. About the same as if a card was lost before it was issued to anyone. Perhaps behind a filing cabinet or stuck in the back of a drawer.
So why the differance between two neighboring states like Ohio and indiana? The answer too often is funding. In Ohio the libraries are funded based on how many patrons they have. They are anxious to give me a "good" card because it reflects positively on the number of patrons they have, which in turn means more money.
In Indiana they are funded by local government. Oh you can get a card if you don't live in the city or county that the library serves. Just be willing to shell out anywhere from $25 to $75 a year for a library card. Since the librarians are used to making people from outside the district pay for a card, they feel very hesitant to just give one to a souvenir collector like me. State Libraries have some wonderful cards. In the next blog we will explore some of the state libraries that have given me one of their cards.
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