Recession claims library program featuring celebrities

April 27th, 2009 at 11:49am Georgette Braun

Say good-bye to the 6-year-old One Book, One Rockford program that brought TV star and author Anthony Bourdain to town in 2007 and author Greg Mortenson last year, fueling a local effort that raised $100,000 to build schools for girls in Afghanistan.

(Anthony Bourdain)

The Rockford Public Library can’t afford to run One Book, One Rockford anymore because it isn’t collecting the kind of taxes it used to, said Emily Hartzog, community relations officer. The program encouraged everyone in town to read the same book at the same time and to talk about it.

Blame the recession. In 2007, the library received nearly $1 million in corporate replacement taxes; this year, the library expects to get about $784,281. The One Book, One Rockford program cost $20,000 to $30,000 each year the library brought in an author to lecture, Hartzog said.

Bourdain, star of the Travel Channel’s “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations,” drew 1,000 people to his lecture focusing on his “Kitchen Confidential” book. Mortenson, co-author of “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time,” drew 2,500. Both lectures were free to the public. Mortenson’s visit was coupled with the local Pennies for Peace fundraising drive.

In 2006, Sandra Benitez, author of “A Place Where the Sea Remembers,” was the first author to be brought to town as part of One Book program.

“Finding someone within our price range, yet with a broad enough appeal, is always challenging,” Hartzog said in an e-mail.

She said a smaller author visit may be part of the Rockford Public Library Foundation’s fundraising efforts or another library program. “We’re taking a conservative approach,” she said.

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