Republican-led state legislature in Wisconsin votes to destroy the crown jewel of the public library system, WiscNet, just so they can also reject millions of dollars in federal funds

Peter Hamon: Loss of WiscNet will hurt libraries

by Peter Hamon, Madison, retired librarian, Wisconsin State Journal, June 14, 2011

Wisconsin shares, or at least it used to. For the past couple of decades, whenever you walked into a public library you were not limited to what was on its shelves. Instead, you could borrow books and other materials from libraries all across the state.

This service made Wisconsin the national leader in what is called interlibrary loan, and along the way, saved the taxpayers of our state millions annually through sharing books instead of requiring every community to buy everything on its own. This was made possible through cheap and effective telecommunications, provided by a not-for-profit public utility called WiscNet.

WiscNet is operated largely by the University of Wisconsin, but libraries and schools all over the state are free to participate. Now the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee has voted to effectively destroy WiscNet by forbidding the university to take part, thus throwing away millions of dollars in federal aid.

This isn't about getting away from public sector/private sector competition, it's about paying off the telecommunications industry, one of the major contributors to the majority party in the Legislature.

And as a byproduct, this measure will destroy a highly effective library resource sharing network that has served the people of Wisconsin well for many years, and will cost untold millions to replace. But who on Joint Finance cares about that?

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