OPINION: The Chicago Public Library budget is under threat. Let’s remember what libraries do for us

Soon, there will be another vote that may determine the 2026 budget available to the Chicago Public Library. After considerable decreases in funding that have left our libraries desperately underfunded this past year, Mayor Brandon Johnson seeks to help with our city’s debilitating debt by slashing funding yet again. 

As an author, I’m sure it’s pretty cut and dry why I would be invested in libraries. Books are my job; literacy is the engine that drives my career and libraries alone account for a fair amount of my sales. I am going to ask you not to care about that and instead to care about something much more important: 

What libraries are in the first place. 

Most people imagine a library as a place where books change hands for free. Maybe their imagination stretches to include it being a place where they can print something in a hurry, use the internet if theirs goes down, or a place where students might go after school to keep them out of trouble. 

The reality of libraries and their role in our society is significantly more complex than that, and particularly when it comes to the budget, it’s important that our politicians understand: 

The library is a budget saving resource, not a budget wasting one. 

Our libraries fill a gap created largely in part by negligent social legislation. Millions of Chicagoans have needs that are not getting met, needs that could be handled by local governance in other ways. The library provides all of these services—for better or worse. The destruction of that safety net would cost the city MORE money, not less. 

Librarians don’t design “programs and services” for fun or because they’re just nice people who love to read. They create programs and services that reflect the needs of the community. The needs of the community have rebound financial costs that will immediately become visible when they are not being taken care of by the libraries.  Libraries are a safety net and the thing that is being made safe is the entire city itself. 

Here is a list of services that libraries provide to the city of Chicago: 

• Veteran support 
• Public computers/Wi-Fi 
• Passport services
• Public restrooms 
• Ged assistance 
• Election access and voting 
• Daytime shelter for unhoused patrons 
• Job help/resume software/free resume printing 
• Literacy programs 
• Citizenship support (immigrant and refugee services) 
• IT help and general technology assistance 
• Braille materials and other resources for blind patrons 
• Resources for ex-offenders 
• Homework help at all CPL locations 
• Classes in various types of software and research 
• Printing 
• After school programs 
• Movie and music rental and streaming 
• Outreach to daycares, schools and community centers 
• Mobile libraries 
• Classes and events 
• Homeschooling support 
• Interlibrary loan 
• Language learning 
• Museum passes and tickets to local events 
• Resources for ex-offenders 
• School partnerships 
• Small business support 
• Social services 
• Connecting homeless patrons to long-term shelters or permanent housing 
• Connecting at-risk patrons with resources for showers, food, and clothing 
• Libraries host lectures, concerts, films, workshops, and professional tax help

• Many libraries are handling teen social needs by hosting Dungeons & Dragons groups and anime clubs. 
• There is a Library of Things which can be used by CPL Members such as: sewing machines, cake pans, ties and jackets, instruments, games, telescopes, cameras, DVD players 
• Our Maker Lab, Chicago’s first free and publicly accessible space, features introductory workshops and open shops for personal projects and collaboration. They have even partnered with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to present Money Smart financial literacy events.

Librarians are primarily archivists. Their dual function as the last line of defense for the leaky ceiling of social policy is something Mayor Brandon Johnson should actually be worried about. When you’re trying to figure out which items to cut in the budget, you absolutely cannot start with the element that has allowed for the already overburdened budget to function. 

Further, there is elsewhere for the budget to be trimmed. Cutting less than one day of our city’s bloated police budget would cover the $4.5 million that is needed to ensure there are no cuts to library staffing and resources. 

Now, I’d like you to scroll back up and look at that list of library resources again. Try and use your imagination and think about the social impact of the removal of those resources. Do you think that would increase or decrease the city’s use of policing? Do you think it would cost more or less in police material and salary to handle what happens when those resources are removed? 

Think with me about which will be more expensive for our city: the cost of one day of police budget or one full year of removing those library services? 

The Chicago Public Library is a wonderful place for people who need a place to read. It is also a patch on a dam holding back a massive deluge. Ignorance towards that will not protect us from the rushing water when our legislators rip half of it off. 

Chicagoans who have these needs will not go away. The need itself—created by negligent social policy—will not go away. The only thing that will go away is the city’s ability to handle the requirements of its own citizens. And that is, perhaps, the one thing Chicago cannot afford.