Library
Allegheny County Library Association (ACLA) libraries are at the
epicenter of shifts in education and workforce development.
W
e are fortunate to have community
libraries throughout Allegheny
County that provide residents of
all ages with valuable resources.
Many of those who have not
visited a library in the past decade or so may
wonder, “Why do we still need libraries?”
It’s been 25 years since Frank Lucchino,
then Allegheny County Controller, issued
a special report: A Quiet Crisis: Libraries
in Allegheny County. This nearly 100-page
report offered an in-depth discussion on the
state of Allegheny County’s libraries and the
problems each of the independent institu-
tions faced. The dawn of the “Information
Age” threatened to leave libraries behind, and
funding was scarce. In fact, Allegheny County
ranked at the bottom nationally for per capita
dollars spent on libraries. Roofs were leaking,
paint was peeling and HVAC systems were
failing.
The report concluded that Allegheny
County’s libraries needed to identify a new
stable source of operating support and
establish a broad-based organization to take
advantage of potential economies of scale.
Libraries accepted the call to action and
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banded together. Twenty-five years later,
the Allegheny County Library Association
(ACLA), with the cooperation of its 46
member libraries, has met the challenges
identified in A Quiet Crisis in ways
that couldn’t have been imag-
ined in the early ’90s.
With strong (and loud)
backing from county
residents, library service
was recognized as an
essential community need.
When state legislation
created the Allegheny
Regional Asset District
(ARAD), libraries
advocated for a piece of
the one percent sales
tax revenue. In fact, since
1995, the ARAD board has
awarded nearly one-third of its funds
to support community libraries. That
support has resulted in widespread
facility renovations, increased service hours,
expanded programming and state-of-the-art
technology tools.