WHEREAS, the Maryland Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped should be a vital tool in the advancement of blind Marylanders from second class to equality in society; and
WHEREAS, the potential of the Library as a source of essential information has never been recognized, let alone realized, by the Maryland State Department of Education, Division of Library Services; and
WHEREAS, the Library is currently housed in rented space which is not maintained even to minimal standards of decency--it is unventilated; it leaks; its electrical system frequently malfunctions; its heating and air conditioning system works poorly when it works at all; and
WHEREAS, the Director of the Library is not even permitted to spend his full time on services to blind people, but must deal with other Division of Library Services business as well; and
WHEREAS, the Director of the Library has no control over its budget; and
WHEREAS, although the proposed 1988 budget contains the same amount of money as the 1987 budget, $140,000.00 has been eliminated from state funding and replaced with federal funds which are vulnerable to Gramm-Rudman budget cuts, thereby shrinking the funding base; and
WHEREAS, the staff of the Library, although dedicated, is too small to adequately handle basic service obligations to patrons and cannot begin to develop innovative collection building; and
WHEREAS, a staff position for a computer operator was eliminated by the Governor: Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland in Convention assembled this seventh day of September, 1986, in the City of Columbia, Maryland, that this organization calls upon the Assistant Superintendent, Division of Library Services, to re-structure the Division's administration so that the Director of the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped has its administration as his sole responsibility; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization strongly urges the Maryland State Department of Education to increase the base state funding for the Library so that it will no longer be dependent on vulnerable federal Library Service and Construction Act funds; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization calls upon the Maryland State Department of Education, Division of Library Services to allocate additional staff positions so that the Library for the Blind can not only meet current service obligations, but also can begin aggressive collection development; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we emphatically insist that top priority be given to acquiring a new building for this Library and that no other library capital improvement be undertaken until the Library for the Blind is decently housed.