Evanston Review: Editorial: City library deserves better funding source

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Read-aloud-to-children advocate and author Jim Trelease writes that a community’s free lending library is arguably its “most treasured cultural asset.” Evanston residents should embrace his assertion and support the Evanston Public Library Board’s plan to adopt a funding model that offers the best option for providing a stable revenue source for that cultural asset.

Perhaps the Illinois General Assembly saw that same value many years ago when it enacted legislation that allows a Library Board to hold exclusive control of all of the money collected for the library. Under the Public Library Fund model, a City Council’s role in collecting taxes set by a Library Board is considered “ministerial” and not discretionary.

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