The California State Library (CSL) is at once a resource for the governor and lawmakers, a repository for the legislation they create and a provider of services for the state's public libraries. While policymakers and advocates debating California's budget often neglect to mention the state library by name, concerns about the funding (or defunding) of local libraries by the state are concerns about the CSL's budget, or at least about funds the CSL directs the treasury to disburse. In 2011, proposed cuts to California's local libraries translated into a $29.4 million drop in the state library's budget. The CSL also publishes reports on historical and policy matters as part of its role as government advisor and administers grants to cultural institutions to preserve California's history.

The California State Library was officially founded in 1850, before California became a state. The idea for the library came even earlier, in 1849, when the first Legislature met in San José. The library was initially conceived as part of the project of government, a necessary source of legal and administrative knowledge. Jonathan Drake Stevenson, Thomas Jefferson Green and John Charles Fremont made donations with the establishment of the library in mind, and the nascent Legislature formed the Standing Committee on the State Library. Government officials took the library with them as they moved to capitol buildings in Vallejo and Benicia before settling in Sacramento in 1854.

The secretary of state functioned as state librarian in the library's early years. In 1852, the government established the Board of Directors, consisting of the state's governor, treasurer, comptroller, president of the Senate and speaker of the Assembly. It also established the State Library Fund, which paid for the maintenance of the collection by levying a $5 fee on all commissioned government officials.

In 1861, the secretary of state's ex-officio librarian status was revoked and the Board of Directors replaced by the Board of Trustees, consisting of the governor, chief justice and three legislative appointees. The CSL remained part of the Department of State, but the Board of Trustees was charged with appointing state librarians. Because the Legislature tended to name trustees along partisan lines, leading to state librarians appointed for partisan reasons, Governor Henry Gage made selection of the three trustees the governor's province in 1899.

The state library was not originally intended to be a public institution. Its collections were meant for lawmakers' and officials' exclusive reference, as evidenced by the fact that the Legislature thought it appropriate to fund it through fees on those government workers. Over time, that attitude changed.

In the 1890s, State Librarian W. Dana Perkins began loaning materials to the State University Library and to public libraries. He also loaned extra copies of books to a state prison. After the turn of the century, State Librarian James Gillis presided over a great expansion of the library's mission and services, opening it to the public in 1903 and creating many of the departments that are vital parts of the state library today.

Where once the library was divided simply into legal and miscellaneous collections, Gillis created the Books for the Blind Department, which sent books to any visually impaired state resident who filled out an application; the California Historical Department, from which the California History Room is descended; the Sociological Department (renamed the Law and Legislative Reference Department); and the Government Documents Department.

One of Gillis's first departments, the Travelling Libraries Department (renamed the Extension Department), sent CSL materials to regions without local libraries, both providing those places with access to books and furthering Gillis's mission of promoting county libraries. The Extension Department was closed in 1911 due to budget cuts.

James Gillis also supported local libraries directly through his new Public Library Division and further developed them after the establishment of the county library system, under the state librarian's supervision, in 1909.

Revisions to the county library legislation in 1911 led to the creation of the Board of Library Examiners, which certified that potential county librarians were appropriately qualified. The state librarian presided over the Board of Library Examiners, joined by the county and city librarians of Los Angeles and San Francisco as members. Believing that professionalization was necessary for the growth of libraries, Gillis opened a library school run by the CSL in 1914. The school merged with the University of California, Berkeley in 1918 and the UC system took over its administration entirely in 1920.

In 1913, the heirs of Adolph Sutro, former mayor of San Francisco, donated Sutro's books to the state library, with the stipulation that the collection remain in the city. The CSL opened the Sutro Library there in 1917. The branch was moved to San Francisco State University's campus in the 1970s.

Organizational and infrastructural changes abound throughout the state library's history. In 1921, the government abolished the Board of Trustees and put the library under the authority of the Finance Department. In 1928, the library finally moved into its new Library and Courts Building across the street from the Capitol, provided for by a 1914 law but delayed by the financial exigencies of World War I.

In the late 1920s, the state library was moved into the Department of Education and the governor gained the power to appoint the state librarian directly. While the governor's appointment prerogative remained, the state library later became an independent agency (despite talk of reorganization in the early 2000s). The library expanded into a building neighboring the Library and Courts Building in 1994. The 1928 building is now the Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building, and renovation on it is scheduled to continue through 2013.

In the later half of the 20th century, the purview of the state library expanded still further. The federal Library Services Act, passed in 1956, and the Library Services and Construction Act that succeeded it, provided aid to libraries for the states to distribute. In California, the state librarian took on that responsibility. In the 1980s, State Librarian Gary Strong established the California Research Bureau, which publishes reports requested by government officials. Strong also founded the California State Library Foundation in 1982, enabling the CSL to receive public funds in addition to its governmental budget.

Library Study: California State Library (by Kelli Kempf)

The CSL aims to be the main public research library on all matters Californian, the preeminent source for information about California's history and governance. It loans materials directly to state officials, operates a branch inside the Capitol, and circulates books to the general public through interlibrary loan. The public is also free to browse the collections in person. Divisions of the main library include:

The California History Room, which comprises an extensive collection of books, maps, manuscripts, ephemera, newspapers and periodicals related to California's history. Some of the collection is not available elsewhere and resides in the Rare Book Room.

The Government Publications section, which is the official depository for documents related to California's government, such as records of legislative hearings and reports by state agencies, as well as a collector of federal documents, including records of patents and trademarks.

The Witkin State Law Library, which collects legal code and opinions from all 50 states and the nation, as well as secondary materials such as law journals.

The Braille and Talking Book Library, which loans books to visually impaired residents of northern California counties, with the exceptions of San Francisco and Fresno and environs. (San Francisco and the Fresno area are served by local libraries, and southern California by the Braille Institute in Los Angeles.)

In San Francisco, the CSL operates the Sutro Library, a research library best known for its genealogy collection.

The California Research Bureau expands on the library's mission to serve and advise the government by providing reports requested by state elected officials. Reports may be either confidential or public, and are strictly nonpartisan, presenting historical background, analysis and policy options without advocating for a particular course of action. The bureau produces between one and 20 public reports in a year, and also creates Studies in the News, a weekly compilation of journalism relevant to public policy.

The Library Development Services Bureau is the division responsible for advising and supporting public libraries and librarians, both through direct funding and through supplementary programs run by the CSL. The bureau was allocated approximately 72% of the library's 2010-2011 budget. That figure is projected to drop to at least 47% in 2011-2012. Development Services supports libraries through the Public Library Fund, which it distributes to public libraries based on the size of the populations those libraries serve, and through the Transaction Based Reimbursement Program of the California Library Services Act, which partially reimburses the costs associated with certain loans. Library Development Services also includes California Library Literacy Services, which provides adult literacy programs statewide. The bureau administers grants through the federal Library Services and Technology Act, successor to the Library Services and Construction Act passed in the 1960s. The change in name reflects the government’s shift in focus to technological infrastructure rather than library buildings themselves. Tuition reimbursement is available for public library staff members through the Public Library Staff Education Program of the LSTA.

In addition to support provided by the Library Development Services Bureau, the CSL administers grants through the following, each of which is its own division:

The Library Bond Act of 2000, which uses state bond funds for public library construction projects. Projects continue, but no new grants are available.

The California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, which supports education about the forced removal and internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

The California Cultural and Historical Endowment, which uses state bond funds to preserve and restore historically and cultural significant sites, including parks and buildings, and to fund projects by art organizations and historical societies.

Of the library's $54.2 million dollar budget projected for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, $32.2 million comes from state funding, with foundation donations and federal funds making up the remainder. The money not spent on staffing goes to publications, information technology, and in some cases, construction projects, meaning that stakeholders include the publishing industries—although, particularly regarding e-books, publishers' and libraries' financial interests conflict as often as they coincide—and some construction firms.

Those most affected by the library's funding, however, are certainly the libraries and grant recipients who benefit from their library development services—the only aspect of the CSL budget to face significant cuts. No public library is funded exclusively by the CSL, but as the state faces severe shortfalls, local governments are also cutting back, compounding the problems for many libraries.

3-Year Budget (pdf)

Governor Signs 2011-12 Spending Plan (California Budget Project) (pdf)

Patron Records

The California State Library is an overwhelmingly uncontroversial institution. While the statistics it publishes concerning public libraries have been used to argue local library organizational policy, and California Research Bureau reports have been used to support positions on issues such as gambling or community workforce agreements, the statistics and research themselves remain unquestioned. When State Librarian Stacey Aldrich earned the Piedmont Civic Association's ire for opining that Piedmont residents could legally be charged fees for using Oakland's public libraries, the furor did not extend far beyond Piedmont.

While the institution itself is relatively uncontroversial, it is not unaffected by issues swirling around libraries. In 2010, a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by the nonprofit Save Our Library attempted to stop the city of Santa Clarita in southern California from selling its 3-branch library to a Library Systems & Services (LSS), a private Maryland company. The issue at the heart of the lawsuite was privacy, not privatization.

Supporters of the suit argued that that turning over patron records to a private company would weaken privacy safeguards and expose patrons to potential identity theft and mass marketing pitches. State Librarian Stacey Aldrich expressed sympathy for those making the argument and called it a “very legitimate concern,” but downplayed concerns about this being a private versus public debate or even a profit versus nonprofit issue.

“The real important thing with any vendor is that [it has] a clear agreement about how that data is used,” Aldrich said. “We have to be clear in our contracts.”

Trina Magi, an associate professor and reference librarian at the University of Vermont, questioned whether vendors like LSS had privacy policies that met standards used by the American Library Association and the information technology industry. “What does it do for the trust of library patrons all over the country?” she asked. “Everyone has to worry that their information could be given to a third party.”

The city council had voted in August 2010 to drop out of the county library system, establish city control and outsource it to LSS. The lawsuit was dismissed in May 2011 and contracts were signed with LSS. But in November two members of the Santa Clarita City Council who had supported the deal were defeated for re-election and the issue was revived.

Lawsuit in California Stirs Debate Over Patron Records (by Michael Kelley, Library Journal)

Judge Dismisses Lawsuits Filed By Save Our Library (by Bradley Seidenglanz, KHTS)

Santa Clarita Library Opens Its Doors to LSSI as Toronto Gears Up for an Outsourcing Fight (by Michael Kelley, Library Journal)

State Funding for City and Town Libraries

When Governor Jerry Brown took office in 2011, he was faced with a projected $26.6 billion deficit. His proposed budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year slashed every public service except K-12 education, including the CSL’s entire Library Development Services (LDS) budget. Brown acknowledged that the cuts would be “painful,” but declared that there was “no choice.”

In the months that followed, the California Library Association, librarians and patrons called for the restoration of funding. The revised bill, passed in June, cut the previous year's LDS budget in half rather than eliminating it (known as the “CLA compromise”), but called for elimination of the rest of those funds if projected revenues didn't reach over $87 billion by December 15, 2011. July tax revenue fell below projections, increasing fears that those cuts would be triggered.

Brown's Proposed Budget Eliminates State Funding for Public Libraries (by Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times)

Governor Signs 2011-12 Spending Plan (California Budget Project) (pdf)

Pro

Faced with a budget that attempted to make myriad programs supported at the state level local responsibilities, library advocates had to argue that state funding was not only important, but crucial. The fact that city and town libraries are largely supported locally meant that ideas in favor of state funding included both blanket pro-library arguments and arguments for the particular value of the CSL's programs and state supplements to local funding.

American Library Association President Roberta Stevens pointed out the particular need for libraries in bad economic times, as the unemployed look for work and develop skills, particularly online. The library consulting Galecia Group went still further, maintaining that cuts to libraries actually hurt the economy and citing a Philadelphia study for support. The same reasoning led to concerns about the elimination of the Library Literary Services program.

Others, including State Librarian Stacey Aldrich, warned that eliminating state funding would create disparities in services and inequalities in access. Provisions of the California Library Services Act encourage loans between libraries and to residents from different counties by partially reimbursing those transactions and supporting regional cooperatives. Without that support, advocates said, rural libraries and libraries in low-income communities would suffer disproportionately.

Statement on California Library Budget Cuts (ALA President Roberta Stevens)

Dear Governor Brown . . . (Galecia Group)

Valley Libraries Fear Budget Cuts (by Kerry McCray, Sacramento Bee)

In California, All State Funding for Public Libraries Remains in Jeopardy (by Michael Kelley, Library Journal)

Con

Arguments against state funding for public libraries are less arguments against libraries and the specific services the CSL provides than arguments that cuts to that funding are the best of bad options. Governor Brown claimed that local governments had to shoulder more responsibility for funding in the face of economic crisis. Some political commentators felt that the governor’s first proposal was designed to shock voters into supporting his tax extensions. That support never materialized.

Gov. Brown's Budget Slashes Spending by $12.5 Billion (Governor's website)

Governor Brown's Progressive Shock Doctrine Takes Shape (by Robert Cruickshank, Calitics)

Gerry Maginnity, 2012-2014 (acting)

Stacey A. Aldrich, 2009-2012

Susan Hildreth, 2004-2009

Kevin Starr, 1994-2004

Gary E. Strong, 1980-1994

Ethel S. Crockett, 1972-1980

Carma R. Zimmerman Leigh, 1951-1972

Mabel R. Gillis, 1930-1951

Milton J. Ferguson, 1917-1930

James L. Gillis, 1899-1917

Frank L. Coombs, 1898-1899

Edward D. McCabe, 1897-1898

William P. Mathews, 1896-1897

W. Dana Perkins, 1890-1896

Talbot H. Wallis, 1882-1890

Robert O. Cravens, 1870-1882

William Neely Johnson, 1870

W. C. Stratton, 1861-1870. Stratton was the first state librarian to be appointed to the office instead of holding it by virtue of being secretary of state.

Johnson Price, 1860-1862

Ferris Forman, 1858-1860

David F. Douglass, 1857-1858

Charles H. Hempstead, 1855-1857

James W. Denver, 1853-1855

William Van Vorhies, 1849-1853

Profiles of State Librarians, 1850-Present (California State Library Foundation)