100 signatures reached
To: Mayor Paulette Guajardo and Corpus Christi City Council
Better Funding for Our Corpus Christi Public Libraries
We want and deserve a strong, vibrant and well-funded public library system in Corpus Christi. This budget season, the City of Corpus Christi should strive to achieve the average level of support provided to library systems in Texas communities of similar size. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission reports in its latest statistics (2023) that the operating revenue per capita for Corpus Christi was $18.13 while the average for cities of similar size was $25.98.
We need to focus on additional funding so we can have things like: convenient and expanded hours of operation; more staff; full and secure accreditation; a collection of print and electronic materials that is current and growing; programs and presentations in partnership with community organizations; current and up-to-date technology; access and support for local history archives; reference services that help the community formulate questions and access resources; security for patrons, personnel and resources; and well maintained facilities and equipment.
Why is this important?
Last year a new Youth (Birth-17) Library Card was created and implemented that requires parent/guardian approval and allows parents/guardians to limit, observe and monitor the use of their child’s or minor’s card. A new project began in December to relocate Young Adult (YA) books from the Teen section into a section specifically designated for YA. The newly adopted Collection Development Policy changes and designates specific age ranges for books and sections from Teen ages 13-16 to Teen ages 13-17 and from YA 16+ to YA 18-25. Juvenile age remains Infancy-12 years old. More safeguards have been put in place so there is no need to spend $15,000-$25,000 or more to implement new restricted Juvenile and Teen Library Cards, especially since our public libraries are chronically underfunded and there is no pornography in the library!