State: Anger meets Bush plan to relocate books

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush wants to give 350,000 books in the state library to Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, a private school with a big new library and a yearning for prestige.

Bush says the transfer will save money and allow millions of people in South Florida to enjoy a little-used collection. But librarians and historians, who have mobilized to stop one of Bush's most controversial budget-cutting moves, are angry. They say the library is a public resource that should never be given to a private university.

The state signed a deal with Nova on Tuesday, but the Legislature needs to approve Bush's plan to pay Nova $5-million over four years to take the 80-year-old collection of books, journals, microfilm, videos and government records. Bush said the state would save $10.2-million over four years, mostly by eliminating 41 state jobs.

"When you see the access this will provide for Floridians, and compare it to what we have now, I think people should give us credit for being creative and solving a problem at a lower cost," Bush said. "Sometimes, you've got to create a little bit of crisis to have an end result, and we found one."

Bush originally proposed moving the books, used mostly by state employees and academics, to Florida State University as a way to save money in a tight budget year. But FSU rejected the offer because the governor did not include any money.

The state on Tuesday signed a six-page contract transferring "title, ownership and possession" of the books to Nova, "thereby lessening the burdens of government." Two other parts of the library division, state archives and state records management, will remain in Tallahassee.

William Summers, a retired dean of Florida State University's library school and a former American Library Association president, said giving the library books to Nova would be a big mistake.

"It's a collection that was built to serve the needs of state government. What's it going to do in Broward County?" Summers said. "It's not a collection that serves students in an academic institution. It's not a collection that serves the general public."

For weeks, Bush has been getting angry e-mails and letters from library lovers, some of whom said moving the library makes no sense because Bush has emphasized the importance of reading.

The criticism showed no sign of letup Tuesday.

"It's putting public material in a private university, and Nova Southeastern does not have the greatest reputation as an academic institution," said Nick Wynne of Brevard County, the executive director of the Florida Historical Society.

Bush showed a flash of anger Tuesday, saying he was offended by critics who accuse him of lacking sensitivity to Florida history. He cited the prospect of war with Iraq in defending the library proposal.

"In these tough, tough, challenging times, where our country is possibly going to war," Bush said, "I would hope that all of the constituencies would join us in finding new approaches to solving problems and to deal with very important services to the state."

The state library's second-floor stacks were silent at noontime on Tuesday. Nobody wanted to thumb through a faded copy of Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States or The Story of Georgia.

"It's just not being used," said Ken Detzner, the interim Secretary of State. He said the Nova library will be open 100 hours a week, compared to the state library's 51-hour week.

Nova began as an educational backwater in a little Fort Lauderdale storefront in 1966, and struggled for years to gain credibility. It's now the 12th-largest non-profit independent university in the country, said its president, Ray Ferrero, who joined Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan at Tuesday's announcement.

Ferrero is most proud of Nova's new 325,000-square-foot NSU Library, Research and Information Technology Center on the main campus in Davie.

What the library needs is books: It has only 400,000 of its own. Ferrero called the agreement with the state "a true, public-private partnership."

The library is shared by Nova and Broward County. But even the Broward County Commission joined the chorus of opposition to Bush's plans. A resolution approved Tuesday, suggested by the county library advisory board, urges Bush not to "dismantle" the library.

Nova pays eight lobbyists, including Brian Ballard, chief of staff to former Gov. Bob Martinez, and Van Poole, the former chairman of the state Republican Party.

-- Times staff writer Julie Hauserman and researcher Deirdre Morrow contributed to this report.

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