Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Bill Marshall, the chair of the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum board of trustees. It first appeared in the Caledonian-Record.
The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum is beloved and cherished by many in the town of St. Johnsbury and the region. Along with its sisters — the Fairbanks Museum, Catamount Arts and St. Johnsbury Academy — it is essential to the educational and cultural richness of our area. It serves as a haven, a sanctuary, a place of reflection, engagement and inspiration through the literature it provides, its nationally acclaimed 19th century art collection, its rare books, and its many programs and services.
The Athenaeum’s magnificent Second Empire building has stood with grace at the top of Eastern Avenue since 1871, serving as a fulcrum for Main Street’s lovely buildings and homes. What a vision Horace Fairbanks had: to provide a space of beauty and elegance for the enrichment of the citizens and young people in the area. Whenever an individual steps foot into this lovely building for the first time, it immediately captures the mind and the heart. What beauty! What elegance! What grace!
But it is what goes on in that building — the welcoming and dedicated staff, the poetry readings, the sound of children’s voices, the jaw-dropping first view of Bierstadt’s “Domes of the Yosemite,” patrons utilizing our computers to access information — that matters. Over the past 141 years, the Athenaeum has evolved and served its patrons and the community well. It has gone through good times and struggles. At this moment, what we cherish and appreciate is in jeopardy. The Athenaeum has significant, even life-threatening, struggles that can be distilled into two challenges:
• how to reduce a significant deficit that is only managed by drawing excessively from its modest endowment — a practice that simply is not sustainable;
• how to make its library services and programs vital and essential in a digital and technological world that is vastly different from the world that libraries have traditionally served.
These two challenges are at the heart of what a nonprofit board of trustees has as its primary governing obligations:
• to assure fiscal solvency;
• to assure that the programs and services made available are fulfilling the mission of an organization.
Let me begin by explaining briefly our financial challenges:
While the citizens of St. Johnsbury have faithfully approved an appropriation each year, the appropriation in our last complete year (2011) accounted for 17.3 percent of the revenues needed for operations.
While we have a policy of taking a certain percentage annually from our endowment for operating expenses, we have, in fact, been drawing down far in excess of that amount. This is not sustainable. If we continue doing this, there is the very real likelihood of depleting the endowment in seven to eight years — a situation that would be fatal.
The remainder of necessary operating revenues must be raised through fees, events, grants, donations and draw-downs from the endowment. (Any building projects such as the recent Skylights Project are funded by grants and private donations above and beyond what is needed for day-to-day operations. Endowment funds are not used for these projects.)
While we have a policy of taking a certain percentage annually from our endowment for operating expenses, we have, in fact, been drawing down far in excess of that amount. This is not sustainable. If we continue doing this, there is the very real likelihood of depleting the endowment in seven to eight years — a situation that would be fatal.
How have we responded?
The board mandated in 2011 that we have a balanced budget by Jan. 1, 2015. Over the last few years, we have reduced expenses wherever possible. We are restructuring the library staffing and eliminating docent and informational technology staffing.
We are increasing or adding positions that will enhance revenues. A full-time development and outreach coordinator can solicit more grants and improve our fundraising efforts. A curator can implement ways to enhance revenues and assure the preservation of our collections.
Equally challenging is our need to transform the Athenaeum’s library services to adapt to a world of information accessibility — a world that threatens our ability to implement our mission if we don’t adapt.
We must adjust to this new reality. However difficult it was to lay off our dedicated library, docent and information technology staff and ask them to consider applying for the newly formed Athenaeum positions, this restructuring sets the stage for the Athenaeum’s role in today’s library world.
How are libraries and the Athenaeum trying to adapt?
• Emphasizing programs and services
• Collaborating with other institutions
• Becoming community gathering places
• Digitizing rare books to make them more available
• Providing ultra-high access broadband
• Providing offsite programs
In my opinion, if we do not get our fiscal house in order and adapt to the radical changes in the role of libraries, we will have failed to honor and preserve Horace Fairbanks’ vision of providing a space of beauty and elegance, a community resource, for the enrichment of the citizens and young people in the area. What a profound loss that would be.
Athenaeum trustees can be contacted via stjathenaeumboard@gmail.com.
