public library funding: city vs. school vs. free-standing

I know that this will oversimplify things a bit, but I want to get it out into text before the thought goes away.

In the US there seems to be three ways for public local funding of libraries: they are a part of a school system, they are part of a municipal city budget, or they have their own independent tax and funding authority.  (I suppose Indiana has some more thoroughly state-wide funding, so that's a fourth.  There's bound to be others).

If I were to look at where the best support at the community level is for public libraries, it seems to be where libraries have to pass their own millages to support their operations and growth.  Taxpayers vote library funding up or down, and by being independent of city budgets there is no internal budget battles vs. fire or police or water or sewer services.

This is also an argument for a library board that's elected, not appointed, so that change in the direction of the organization can come from a vote of the people and not an entrenched set of political appointees.

In Michigan the legislation that set the movement towards publicly elected district library boards in motion is Public Act 24 of 1989.