CPSIA by the numbers – Why libraries can’t comply

Esther, a fashion designer and a librarian, shares her thoughtful insights about how CPSIA affects her library.

This is a compilation of two of my blog entries and its effects on one of the industries in which I work.

I have had two careers. The first started in a library when I was in college. But like most of my peer co-workers in the university library, we went out into the world and got a “real job”. For me that was in the fashion industry. I have worked in the fashion industry for the last 12 years in a variety of capacities creating product for big box retailers and specialty boutiques. Most of my has been technical in nature such as pattern making, grading, and quality control. Some of it has been in design and retail. As the fashion industry has contracted, factories have closed and job opportunities have been minimized. Somehow, I have managed to keep a few toes in the industry the last few years. The reality is that I still had bills to pay. So I have returned to my library past. For the last 4 years I have worked part-time in a small library. This means I can easily claim the title of Fashion Designer, Pattern Maker, and Librarian. I have a unique perspective on the CPSIA and its effects on two industries. I decided to run the numbers of how the CPSIA would affect a small rural library.

The CPSC issued a press release
(http://cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09120.html) (not an official rule) on their intended enforcement plan come February 10th. One hot little item in this press release is that the CPSC is not concerned about books printed 1985 or later. This means that libraries and book publishers now need to worry about books printed pre-1985. Do we test or throw books out? How do we sort through our collections and keep kids from checking out pre-1985 book? With this blog entry, I try to show how it would be impossible to do it.

Caveats.
Some of these numbers are best guess estimates. It appears impossible to run a report detailing the total number of books with a pre-1985 publication date. The creators of this cataloging system never devised an easy way to do this but who would ever think we would need this?
Another caveat is that even though a book has a copyright date of pre-1985, it still may have been printed post-1985 and that info may not show up in the record in a consistent enough way to run an accurate report. Plus, how do we take into account the cross over between Junior Fiction and Young Adult? In any event, the only accurate way to determine the numbers is to physically go through the shelves and look.
A nearly impossible task, at least for a small library with limited staff and slashed budgets.

Total library inventory: 34,668
Total est. juvenile inventory: 10, 601
Percentage of juvenile inventory: 31%

Estimate of inventory pre-1985: 75% or 7951 units

Now if we have to test pre-1985 inventory at $500/book: $3,975,375

Now, I am assuming we will have to do the certified laboratory testing for several reasons. The testing costs were not included in the yearly budget, so we would have to reopen it and appropriate funds to pay for it. It is a lengthy, messy process to add to the budget, so money realistically won’t be available until Oct 1st, long after the certified lab testing goes into effect. Next, we would need to pay staff to go through all of the shelves and box up the books. Oh yeah, and pay for the boxes and ship them to a certified lab clear across the country. Did I mention this library is in rural Idaho? Shipping costs alone will kill us. The testing costs exceed the entire city budget, btw.

Another problem is that the certified laboratory testing will render most of the books down to toxic goo. So why even bother with the testing.

It is unlikely that the city will appropriate funds for testing. That leaves us with throwing out 75% of our juvenile section and replacing those books. We would still need to estimate close to $4 million dollars for replacement costs, if replacements can be found on all the titles.
Plus we would need to pay staff to sort, box up/throw out books, buy replacements, and process them. And did I mention books are heavy. I would love to see a garbage truck pick up our trash can loaded with books! Of course, if they are banned hazardous substances, we can’t just throw them in the dumpster. We would need a hazardous materials removal specialist to do that….

And really, this starts to become silly. We don’t regulate what books or audio visual materials a child can checkout. This brings our entire collection of 35,000 items under suspicion. What will the kids read while we are in the process of removing, testing, replacing thousands of books?

So our realistic choices are:

1. Shut down our children’s section, or
2. Ban kids 12 and younger from the library.

Not so realistic considering how popular our library is with kids.

BTW, the hottest new read is 1984 by George Orwell or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I think it would be good to send our Congressional Representatives copies, just make sure it is printed pre-1985.

Esther
Fashion Designer and Librarian
http://designloft.blogspot.com