News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 25, 2005 Contact: Dan Farough
Phone: (517) 373-2093



LANSING - State Reps. Marsha Cheeks (D-Detroit), George Cushingberry (Detroit) and Tupac Hunter (D-Detroit) today applauded Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm for signing a bill that will allow the Detroit Public Library to regain its status as a cooperative library. A cooperative library is eligible to receive more state funding for its programs and services.

Currently, the board of an existing library system that serves a population of more than 1 million people may ask the state to be designated a cooperative library. The Detroit Public Library was its own cooperative but was stripped of its status in 2000 after the city's population dropped below 1 million. The library later joined another cooperative called the Library Network. However, the bill the governor signed today allows a library that serves more than 750,000 people to regain its cooperative status. The DPL can now petition the state Department of History, Arts, and Libraries to be its own cooperative again.

"This bill is a good first step in obtaining the funding the Detroit Public Library needs to strengthen its many programs and services," said Cheeks, Democratic chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee of History, Arts and Libraries. "However, it is imperative that the Legislature maintains the Governor's proposed funding of $300,000 for the library in this upcoming fiscal year's budget."

Cheeks is concerned that the low ranking given to the library by the History, Arts and Libraries appropriations subcommittee will make it a sure target for elimination by the Republicans.

Cushingberry said the law will help improve library services and help make DPL one of the leading library institutions in the country.

"The signing of the bill puts the Detroit Public Library back where it belongs, in a cooperative status," Cushingberry said. "Now the library can focus on improving its many programs to better serve the people of Detroit."

"It is important for the Detroit Public Library to be its own cooperative," Hunter said. "The library has one-of-a-kind materials that people from all over the world come to see. It should be eligible for all state funding and this bill assures that."