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Aberdeen Library vs. Hoven School: Aberdeen Getting Good Deal!

Aberdeen cit councilman Mark Remily got off a good line on the cost of the proposed new public library, bond financing for which was given first reading last night:

“The public perception of this looks bad,” Remily said, in reference to the total cost of the project.

Remily also asked how the Hoven School District can build an entire school for $5.1 million and this library is close to $8 million [Elisa Sand, “Library Bond Financing Clears Hurdle in Aberdeen,” Aberdeen American News, 2015.09.22].

That seems like a pretty good comparison: tiny Hoven gets a whole school for $5.1 million (from Aberdeen contractor Kyburz, no less), and we can’t get a simple public library for a similar amount?

Then again, let’s do simple math: Hoven is builing a 19,000-square-foot addition for grades 7–12 attached to its elementary school. That’s $268 per square foot. Aberdeen’s new library will be 28,200 square feet. That’s $284 per square foot.

The Hoven School District serves mostly Potter County, with bits of Walworth, Edmunds, and Faulk. (Boy, you want to see gerrymandering? Take a look at the intertwining of Hoven and Gettysburg school districts!) Let’s just take Potter County as their base service population. The Hoven school serves a community of about 2,300 people. Their new school is an investment of about $2,200 per constituent.

The Aberdeen public library serves at least the city of Aberdeen, if not all of Brown County (and I won’t go further and use Mayor Levsen’s quite supportable claim that the Hub City really serves a regional community of 75,000). Depending on whether we use Brown County’s population of 36,531 or Aberdeen’s population of 26,091, we get a per-constituent cost of the new library of $219 to $307.

Duane Riedel has a network of petitioners ready to refer the new library financing to a vote to stop it. I welcome their efforts at democracy… but they won’t want to use the Hoven comparison to bolster their case.

16 Comments

  1. leslie 2015-09-22 11:17

    While Hoven’s Spencer the science teacher confuses his middle and high school students and the greater public with politics he parades as facts, at least neighboring Gettysbergians proudly confused while flying the stars and bars, can have a nice school and an excuse (with underpaid teachers, that at least for one, are more political than precise, to boot!). The new library can loan books to clear the air for nearby Hoven, so Spencer, those facts can come to light despite “butchers at the little bighorn” who defended their homes from attack! Remember?

    at least 23 Spencer rifles were used against federal troops in defense at the little big horn. one in museum hands was proven to have fired rounds toward Keogh skirmish lines. during Wild Bill Cody’s re-enactments he reportedly cried out the line: “First scalp for Custer” as he mock-scalped the Cheyenne “Yellow Hair” on his encounter as Cooke’s scout, july 17, 1876. Cody Museum, centerofthewest.org

  2. leslie 2015-09-22 12:18

    Merrit’s, not Cooke’s 5th Calvary. nebraskahistory.org (sioux county/warbonnet creek)

  3. David Newquist 2015-09-22 12:19

    The original motivation for proposing a new library for Aberdeen was the inadequacies of the current building for handling and preserving the library materials. The damned thing leaked and there was moisture damage to the materials. And the concern was the storage, preservation, and accessibility that affects the primary purpose of a library, to hold and make available information for the public. The Aberdeen library was also the site for much book-related activities, which brought in authors and held discussions.

    A concern brought up many times by those of us who use biblio-materials is the storage of hard copy texts of various formats. While those questions are often dismissed with the response that digitalization of texts and computer networks don’t require as much storage space, the responses miss the point that digital texts are prone to hacking, computer errors, and threats to their existence by massive electronic failures.

    At some time there has to be a hard copy of a text to refer to for verification and correction, whether it be stone tablet or acid-free paper. There has been no discussion about what plans are made for the new library to be part of a system that preserves and makes available hard texts. This is important because the South Dakota Library Network, which once provided access to a catalog for every library in the state is being dismantled. Governed by the Board of Regents, the libraries have been put on notice that all, excepted the university libraries, are to switch to another system by early 2016. Most are in the process of making the switch.

    The advantage of the SDLN was that libraries could co-ordinate holdings so that single libraries did not have to duplicate rarely used items but could still provide access. When asked about finding such materials, a librarian said they may be available through interlibrary loan if one can find them.

    Libraries are essential features in any community that wishes to maintain a literate and informed culture and provide opportunities for continuous education. They are also important centers for activities that center on literacy. But the discussion on the new library has been almost entirely on its architectural features with little mention of what materials it will hold and provide access to. Which is the library’s reason for being.

  4. Deb Geelsdottir 2015-09-22 15:09

    “the South Dakota Library Network, . . . is being dismantled.”

    WHAAAAT? They can’t do that! SD is a state of small towns and the SDLN is critical to the people in those small towns. As a teacher I’ve lived east of I29, south of I90, north of hwy 12 and later, as far west as Spearfish. I grew up just about smack dab in the middle of it all. I used the SDLN in every one of those towns, and so did lots of other people. Is this a Republican/Koch bid to dumb down the populace? It’s the worst idea EVER!

  5. MJL 2015-09-22 17:22

    They are replacing SDLN with other services. When I attended a library conference/training, they explained that the new service is better. I have not had to work with it yet and cannot give any personal insight. It sounds like the new library will also be setting up space to create makerspaces to go with all the books.

  6. Connie Williams 2015-09-22 18:40

    Quite frankly, I thought the comparison of Hoven and Aberdeen was utterly asinine.

  7. David Newquist 2015-09-22 20:20

    Each library has to find new software for cataloging. There will be no central catalog for South Dakota. Here is the explanation posted on the Mitchell library site:

    “Recently, the South Dakota Board of Regents, the sole entity governing the South Dakota Library Network, decided SDLN would only support regent libraries. In other words, SDLN software could only be used by libraries on South Dakota college campuses, [ library director Jackie] Hess explained.

    “The Mitchell Public Library had used the SDLN software for about 10 years, but Hess said it was time for a change.

    “We’ve been (with SDLN) for 10 or 11 years, and it was getting outdated,” Hess said.

    “Some public libraries began to abandon the system before the South Dakota Board of Regents made the announcement, Hess said.

    “All non-regental libraries were required to find a new software by June 30, 2016, and the Mitchell Public Library chose Atriuum, powered by Alabama-based Book Systems.
    According to Hess, libraries in Huron, Pierre, Vermillion and Yankton adopted the Atriuum software. Libraries in Brookings, Watertown and Aberdeen chose other softwares, but Hess said interlibrary loans between the systems are still possible.”

  8. Spencer 2015-09-22 20:51

    Considering our current High School library takes up two very small patient rooms, it is a silly comparison. Gettysburg refused to provide bus services to any of Potter County’s country schools while Hoven provided such services. It should not be surprising that they chose to join the Hoven School District when they folded. Hoven’s land base is so large that we do not receive funding from the state outside of very small sparsity and public lands payments. Leslie, I teach hard sciences, not soft, and certainly not American fiction. I treat much of Lakota revisionist history/dogma much like I treat the Book of Mormon; I neither find it offensive nor pertinent to modern society.

  9. Deb Geelsdottir 2015-09-22 21:12

    Thank you for the (fairly good?) news about SDLN being gone. I had to find an AED to restart my heart.

    Spencer, do you feel the same about European history? “neither . . . offensive nor pertinent.”

  10. David Newquist 2015-09-22 22:54

    The public school and town libraries will not be connected to SDLN as it will cover only university libraries. Note that the Mitchell librarian says “interlibrary loans are still possible,” not that any systematic exchange is in place. I think of an instance where I was helping a grad student find some local history accounts and we were able to search the SDLN ;;system and found many tucked away in the storefront libraries in the small towns. The way things are being set up, I don’t that would be possible now.

  11. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-09-23 05:40

    David, do we really no longer have the ability to search all SD libraries at once?

  12. leslie 2015-09-23 05:53

    is this a Regent’s effort to cut costs at the state level, because, who uses a library, poor people and Kochs’ strategy is to eliminate state funding of such unnecessary spending so that money is available for republican administrations to spend on…let’s see, Rounds’/daugaard’s Regents spent $500k recently on cali. federal litigation to protect joop’s…i mean Regents’, NSU’s and GOED’s (we the people’s) interests. is that about right?

  13. David Newquist 2015-09-23 12:03

    As it is now the university libraries will continue with SDLN and the other libraries will be on a number of software catalogs, such as Atriuum and whatever Aberdeen is on. Whether or not those catalogs will be coordinated or linked has not been explained, or even if libraries using the same system will be coordinated. SDLN supplied a coherent system. There seems to be no agency addressing if or how a network will be established. But what is more alarming is that libraries seem to have eliminated some holdings, just as Jason Gant, as Bob Mercer notes, eliminated some records in the Secretary of State’s office. We found that no local library in Aberdeen has a complete microfilm set for the local newspaper. The State Historical Society may have, but there seems to be gaps according to its catalog.

  14. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-09-23 18:22

    No microfilm archive? Come on—the legal print requirement hinges on the greater durability of the paper/microfilm record over online records. If we can’t get the local paper at the library back to the 1880s, then why don’t we just put all the minutes online and save the city some money?

  15. leslie 2015-09-24 09:03

    how does your racism comport with modern society, hard science (just the facts), and Indian label of Harney “women killer” after destroying Blue Water village with 600 some troops in a surround, while you publically malign an entire race with simplistic label “butchers” defending their Greasy Grass village against some 600 troops, arrogantly dismissing their appreciation of Harney Peak as dogma?

    I know this is a lotta words but was your mentor racist?

    Here’s a hard science project: Hoven’s students order “Lakota Star Knowledge” Sinte Gleska University (1976-yes, before you were born) from library loan, and discuss the peak’s relationship with constellations.

    and what the hell does the post-fire size of your library have to do with 2,200 pop. hoven and 35,000 pop. Aberdeen?

  16. leslie 2015-09-24 13:18

    Eliminating records IS revisionist history. It is important to preserve records. Owner/Editor of Omaha World Herald took Harney to task at the time, but those editorials have disappeared. Low and behold, commenters against the Harney name change shout that 40 years later Harney was known by the Indian people as “truth keeper”. Good PR work Harney!! haha.

    Cory says it beautifully:

    “…many South Dakotans, including state officials, [still] grasp[ing] for strange excuses to obscure their disrespect for the folks who greeted us when we got here”, Spencer, get started on Hoven School Library Lakota Science section. (I just saw a root ball as big is a basket ball in the Bad Lands desert. What is it Spencer? What are its historical/pre-historical medicinal properties? Know any botanists? biologists? oceanographers?

    The multitude of excusatory comments that bigots come up in the many political correctness debates in the country right now, over and over again are surprising: how lazy bigots are in an effort to camouflage their unacceptable but similar belief systems.

    Its too expensive to change and re-sign; spend your time on something worthwhile; rewrite history; when will renaming end…change Dakota?, get a job; fix your reservations, your suicides first; confuse tourists-are you crazy?; it’s been so-named FOREVER, leave as is; deep sentimental value; Lakota were not here 1st; Indians were “butchers”, savages, less than human; look at it out my picture window every day. ad nuaseum

    I wonder if Lakota people wish they could look at it out their picture window every day? Lemme know when you develop empathy necessary to be a teacher. excuse me, a hard science teacher. hard science is my kinda cup-o-tea.

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