On the first floor of the split-level Maben library, Henry Brown sits at a small, round table using one of the facility’s two publicly available computers.
When introducing himself to strangers, he’s sure to tell them, “People call me Hank.” Mary Boutwell, who has run the Maben library for 13 years, calls Brown, “one of our regulars.”
“We have quite a few regulars we can count on to come in and get books or use the computers,” Boutwell said. “Traffic is kind of slow since COVID. It was really good before. Now we have 35 to 40 people in and out most days.”
A Maben native, Brown lives in Starkville but frequents his hometown to visit his mother, inevitably making his way into the town’s library as part of the routine. Like many of Maben’s library patrons, he doesn’t have internet access at home other than on his mobile phone. So, Brown uses the computer to feed his interest in sports, history, news and researching his genealogy.
“I’ve been coming here all my life,” Brown said. “I’d be lost without this place.”
Open four days a week — each weekday except Wednesday — Maben’s library provides myriad services at the Second Avenue location where it has stood since 1967. Patrons use the computers to apply for jobs or format their resumes. They can rent CDs and DVDs in addition to books. For a small fee, they can print and copy documents or use the fax machine.
“Lots of folks who come here don’t drive,” Boutwell said. “They walk here. There are people who check out books who I don’t think would go anywhere else to do that if we weren’t here.”
Possibly Boutwell’s favorite days are Fridays, when children come in for storytime and fill the colorfully appointed children’s area upstairs.
“I’m really proud of that room,” Boutwell said.
Without immediate financial assistance from the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors and a tabled motion by the Starkville-Oktibbeha County Public Library Board, Maben’s library would have faced significant changes as of Oct. 1. For starters, its operating hours could have been cut by nearly 40 percent. Phillip Carter, who directs the county’s library system, even publicly floated the idea of shuttering that location in the near future if more local funding wasn’t provided.
For Brown, either conclusion would have been a shame.
“The library has always been a big pillar here in Maben,” Brown said. “Without it, the town would definitely suffer.”
County plans to help
The Starkville-Oktibbeha County Public Library system is headquartered in Starkville and has brick-and-mortar branches in both Maben and Sturgis.
District 4 County Supervisor Bricklee Miller, whose district includes Sturgis, said town leaders there approached her in 2019 to request county assistance for their library — assistance Sturgis, with a population of about 200, could no longer afford to provide.
“They said they could either afford to fund the library or the police department,” Miller told The Dispatch.
The county stepped in with a direct annual contribution of $7,500 to the Sturgis library. At the time, supervisors discussed an equal contribution to the Maben library. That never made it into the board order, however, so that money was never provided in the budget.
District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard, whose district includes Maben, hopes to rectify that starting Oct. 1, when the new fiscal year begins. He is proposing the county provide the Maben library $20,000 in FY 2023 and $7,500 annually thereafter.
Miller, District 1 Supervisor John Montgomery and District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer told The Dispatch they all plan to support the proposal.
“It’s a good dollar spent when you spend it on a library or access to one,” Montgomery said.
District 5’s Joe Williams would not comment on whether he would support it.
Carter said the county’s contribution guarantees the Maben library can continue “at its current level of service,” at least for now.
Almost cutting back
When Carter presented Maben’s case to the library board in July, he did not have that county funding commitment in hand.
What he had was a history of inconsistent funding from the town, population 800, and little communication from its leaders.
“I sent emails and attended town meetings,” Carter told The Dispatch. “The most I get to my email inquiries is an acknowledgement of receipt.”
Maben contributed more than $27,000 to its library in 2012, Carter said. It committed the same amount the next year but provided only $18,500. From there, the town’s annual budget pledge dropped to $9,250. But since 2019, Maben has fallen short of funding even that pledge by a cumulative $11,100.
In July’s library board meeting, Carter recommended the Maben location be cut to 2 1/2 days of operation starting in October. The recommendation garnered a motion and second, but the majority of the board, including president Sue Minchew, opted to table it.
“We were keeping our fingers crossed that the county would be able to come up with some money,” Minchew said. “I think it’s very important to keep that library running, so I’m very excited (about the county funding).”
Maben Mayor Larry Pruitt told The Dispatch he supports cutting the hours at the library so the system can save costs. As for the town’s budget, he said it has been hit hard in recent years by closed businesses and rising costs for other services.
“Our budget has changed,” he said. “Our tax base has dropped. … Maybe, eventually, (Carter) will understand we’re a small town. We don’t have the tax base like Starkville. When you don’t have it, you don’t have it.”
Pat Harpole, Maben’s vice mayor, hopes the town can one day make its back payments and resume regular contributions.
“Maybe when we get back on our feet, we can get more organized so we can do better,” she said.
Sturgis Mayor Leah Brown doesn’t see her town getting back to where it can directly support its library.
“For small towns, the funds just aren’t there,” she said. “I’m very appreciative to the county for stepping in.”
Bookmobiles?
Carter seems to agree with the Sturgis mayor.
In July’s library board meeting, he planted a seed for drastic changes for the future of the rural libraries — it might be more cost effective to replace those brick-and-mortar locations with a bookmobile that travels the county. At the time, he thought Maben had already reached that point.
Speaking to The Dispatch last week, Carter said while the county funding is a critical immediate step, it doesn’t completely change his opinion.
“I think it’s a very real possibility,” Carter said to the rural libraries becoming outmoded. “It comes down to the public’s interest in libraries and making sure that we have things they want and need. Then it comes down to the local legislators in those towns believing in library services and supporting it. If you can get and maintain those two things — local interest and local support — then small brick-and-mortar libraries can continue to flourish.”
The library system operates with an annual budget of about $670,000, almost 80 percent of which comes from local funding sources. The rest comes from federal or state sources, private donations or contributions from the Friends of the Library.
The county has given about $270,000 to the system the last three years, Carter said, including its direct contribution to Sturgis, while about $250,000 comes from the city of Starkville.
Maintaining staff at the two rural libraries costs the system more than $40,000 combined per year, Carter said, not counting utilities, technology, programming and other costs, which mount thousands of dollars more. The towns of Maben and Sturgis own their respective library buildings and are responsible for certain maintenance costs, such as roof repairs.
With five weeks left in the fiscal year, the Maben library has seen nearly 6,300 visitors, while Sturgis has seen close to 3,300, Carter said. By comparison, Starkville’s library has seen 50,000 visitors.
A bookmobile, Carter said, could travel around remote parts of the county and provide books, Wi-Fi, internet hotspots and computer access. However, buying and equipping the vehicle, to say nothing of maintaining and keeping gas in it, would come at no small cost. There are grants to get libraries started with bookmobiles, though they are highly competitive.
“We’re talking front-end costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars, not tens (of thousands),” he said. “(It’s an investment) that I think could serve this community very well. … Over multiple fiscal years, it results in more service in more areas, and once you’re past the initial investment, it begins to see returns pretty significantly.”
Still, he admits from a library user standpoint, bookmobiles aren’t “great replacements” for brick-and-mortar libraries.
“I’d love for us to have a bookmobile in general … as an expansion of what we do, not a replacement,” he said.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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