Gov. Jeb Bush Set on Breaking Up
Florida State Library
Florida Lieutenant Governor Frank Brogan announced February 25 that the State Library of Florida’s circulating collection—consisting of more than 354,800 books, periodicals, and audiovisual materials—will be transferred to Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. The move, expected to be complete by early fall, is intended to save the state $10.2 million over the next four years by eliminating 41 library positions and other costs.
Gov. Jeb Bush called the deal “a really important example of a public-private partnership,” the Tallahassee Democrat reported February 26. The NSU library is a joint-use facility, shared by university faculty and students and registered borrowers of the Broward County Division of Libraries. Bush added that those who don’t agree “have a very static way of looking at things” and “can’t see beyond the horizon.”
However, the announcement did little to dissuade widespread criticism of Bush’s plan to break up the state library. Nova will receive $5 million in state funds over the next four years to move and maintain the collection, an arrangement that wasn’t made in an earlier proposal to Florida State University. “That’s a good deal,” said former FSU dean and ex–State Library Director William Summers facetiously. “The state’s paying them $50 a book to give them books the state already owns.”
Bush has since backed down on a broader plan to transfer the library’s prized Florida Collection and the state archives to the Department of Environmental Protection, according to the February 26 Orlando Sentinel.
Meanwhile, a coalition of librarians, archivists, and historians has banded together to seek a court injunction against the move and challenge the governor’s authority to give away public property. Pam Cooper, an organizer of the group and genealogy librarian at the Indian River County Main Library in Vero Beach, has planned a demonstration at the state library in Tallahassee March 4, when she hopes about 250 like-minded people will be able to link arms around the building.
Posted March 3, 2003.
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