How does the model reflect the concept of local public libraries being the best judge of the library service needs of their own communities?
For the past thirty years, language in the State Aid to Public Libraries Act (1977 PA 89) has determined how state aid to public libraries funds have been disbursed and spent. Based upon that legislation, the portion of state aid funds assigned to a library’s service population on a per capita basis was basically divided up into thirds. Only one third has been consistently given directly to public libraries to expend as they see fit. Another third has been spent for them by having them directly awarded to the library cooperatives, up front and without any stated workable mechanism of accountability that would enable the state to ensure the quality of the cooperative services resulting from those annual allotments of state aid to public libraries funds. The final third, which has been awarded only to those libraries that choose to be members of a cooperative, has been inconsistently either required as part of cooperative membership and services or kept by the library under the policy of
