San Diego is shrinking the gap in financial resources between its library branches in rich and poor neighborhoods with a new social equity policy that shifts how the city’s “matching funds” are doled out.
The policy rerouted nearly $400,000 during fiscal 2019 from branches in relatively wealthy areas, such as Mission Hills and Point Loma, to branches in lower-income areas, such as City Heights and southeastern San Diego.
“It’s working exactly the way I hoped it would work,” said Misty Jones, the city’s head librarian, during an interview this week. “It’s really a significant difference, especially in the underserved neighborhoods.”
Previously the city’s “matching funds” policy was essentially doubling the impact of private donations, by providing branches that get donations with an equal match of taxpayer money as an incentive to spur more contributions.
Many branches north of Interstate 8 often get annual donations totaling nearly $100,000, while many branches in the southern part of the city get less than $1,000 per year.
Under the new policy, donations to branches are matched at a rate of only 50 percent, so the other 50 percent of the matching money can be placed in a “pool” account to be distributed across the entire 36-branch system.
The pooled money is doled out according to a complex formula that prioritizes branches in areas with lower median household incomes and branches that serve the largest populations.
The policy is one way the library has been ahead of most other San Diego agencies in focusing on social equity among neighborhoods, which became a higher priority in 2020 along with the creation of the city’s Office of Race and Equity.
In addition to the matching funds program, which took effect in fiscal 2019, San Diego also became one of the first library systems in the nation to boost access for low-income residents by eliminating fines for overdue books and other materials two years ago.
Circulation of books and other library resources was sharply up in low-income areas before the pandemic, Jones said, a change she attributes to the elimination of the fines and her decision to restore library cards to roughly 60,000 people who had lost access because of previous fines.
While libraries all over the country have followed suit on eliminating fines, Jones said she believes San Diego is the only library system that has a social equity component to its matching funds policy.
The shift provides some of the city’s least funded branches with money for things like new furniture and programming, such as author talks and story times for children.
Jones provided examples of how the new policy impacts two relatively wealthy branches and two relatively poor branches.
Based on a four-year average of the impact of new policy, annual matching for the Mission Hills/Hillcrest branch would drop from $6,885 to $5,673, and annual matching funds for the Point Loma branch would drop from $12,799 to $11,461.
The change shifts upward the average matching funds for the City Heights branch from $19,563, to $25,861, and it shifts up the average for the Mountain View/Beckwourth branch in southeastern San Diego from $15,494 to $20,966.
The policy softens what is typically a sharp disparity in donations collected by branches.
“An area like Rancho Bernardo or La Jolla can contribute significant donations, but the population around the City Heights branch doesn’t have the resources,” said Patrick Stewart, chief executive of the San Diego Library Foundation. “Some of these branches were getting almost nothing.”
Stewart said greater social equity remains a priority for local library supporters.
“I think there’s always more that the library can do, but this is a big step,” he said.
Some critics of the new matching funds policy might point out that each neighborhood in the city gets its own library branch despite homeowners in wealthy areas paying significantly higher property taxes.
Stewart said that would be the wrong way to think about social equity.
“The way we create a world-class city is by having an entire city of informed, high-quality individuals,” he said.
Efforts to create a new library master plan for San Diego are expected to kick off in late January with community forums, which Stewart said would be an opportunity to learn new ways the library can boost equity.
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Social equity policy at San Diego Library boosting branches in low-income neighborhoods - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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