Director's message - Summer 2025

Welcome, summer! It's time to get ready for all the fun and activities surrounding this year's summer reading club: Ticket to Read. With its county fair theme, participants can look forward to fun programs with special guests, outdoor movies under the stars and plenty of surprises along the way. 

The summer reading club, which is fully sponsored by the Friends Foundation of Worthington Libraries, begins on May 23 and concludes on July 27. You can get started online at worthingtonlibraries.org or at any Worthington Libraries location. 

While summertime fun at the Library has been a certainty for decades, there is considerable uncertainty right now about the future of public libraries in the United States. At the federal level, the Institute for Museum and Library Services has been dismantled. Libraries and museums alike are facing a loss in funding used for research, workforce training and programs designed to reach vulnerable populations. 

In Ohio, state funding for libraries comes from the Public Library Fund, which-- at the time of this writing-- is collected at 1.7% of the General Revenue Fund. This funding model has been in place for decades and allows library funding to ebb and flow with the economy. More importantly, it provides a stable source of funding for all libraries in the state, ensuring that all Ohioans have access to the information and materials they need. 

The Public Library Fund, too, is under threat from state legislators who want to make library funding a line item in the budget, making it easier to remove all funding for libraries in the future. While we are in the fortunate position-- thanks to the support of our community-- of having two property tax levies, public libraries without local funding would be decimated by a loss of state funding. I am hopeful that, when the state biennium budget is approved before July 1, our legislators will have made the decision to maintain the Public Library Fund and continue to support unobstructed access to information for all Ohio residents. 

Unobstructed access also applies to the items we have in our collection. Although censorship and calls to ban books are not new, the current movement around removing books for children that feature characters or information surrounding gender and identity is particularly concerning. The Library does not take the place of parents. It's up to each family to determine together what is appropriate for their children to read, and what might not be right for one family could be exactly what their neighbors are looking for. That's the beauty of the public library: something for everyone!

There will certainly be more to come on all of these topics as the year progresses, but in closing, I want to say how much I value living and working in a community that cares so much for its library. I wish you all a happy and healthy summer full of books and wonder.