JACKSON LIBRARY'S NEW HOME

How community leaders respond to setbacks is one way to evaluate the effectiveness of their leadership. This year the board of directors for Riverside Regional Library and the board for the Jackson Public Library attempted to merge the libraries.

With two separate libraries in Jackson, it became obvious that they would operate more efficiently as a single library. The two library boards and city officials brought a tax measure to voters with the hope that voters too would see the need to build a new combined library. But voters rejected the plan, which left Riverside stretching at the seams and, more importantly, left the Jackson Public Library without a building and facing the threat of closure.

For years, the library has shared space with city hall. But the city offices will move later this month into the former Boatmen's Bank building on Main Street.

The Jackson Board of Aldermen concluded that a small city library is better than none at all and voted to let the library again share space in the new city hall.

The move probably won't solve the library's financial problems and space constraints, but it will keep open the library at no extra cost to taxpayers.

The agreement between the city and the library board is a good example of how a setback -- the failure of the library merger measure -- doesn't have to yield calamity if folks simply put their heads together and come up with a practical solution.