A Critical Analysis of State-Aid Formulas

COKTRARY to writers for Library TO INSTRUCTIONS Trends, this article is not a review of recorded thought on the topic at hand (though it is to be hoped that it is “a thoughtful and authoritative paper”). The reason for not following the instructions is that there is very little recorded thought of an analytical or critical nature about this topic. To be sure, two evaluations of state plans exist,l and both deal in varying detail with such matters as the number of books, staff and other such measures. However, there has been little interchange of ideas on how to establish a formula for state aid or, more importantly, whether a state-aid formula should or can affect the basic conditions of public library service by, for example, altering the purposes of libraries or their organizational form. Neither has there been substantial discussion of the problems which state-aid formulas may cause or aggravate. Analysis of a problem-oriented nature is needed if we assume that state aid is a growing phenomenon, which, of course, it may not be. Constructive criticism will be accomplished most fruitfully through objective study and research involving both librarians with a research orientation and specialists in public administration, political science, sociology and perhaps other disciplines. A state-aid formula is usually, of course, one of the principal end results of a study of the conditions of library service. The results of the formula would probably be better if they were the result of a longrange, open-ended process of planning and thus perhaps open, by definition, to change. However, the fact is that most formulas are established following a relatively short period of study, and for a variety of reasons they become difficult to change. What should be a process then becomes an event, most often under the control of persons or groups of persons who do not carry responsibility for implementing the plan. The