The bad news from the Aloha State is that the Hawaii State Library System will have $196,000 of its legislatively allocated funds withheld this year. The good news is that the amount is less than half of the lower end of the range of restrictions the state Office of Budget and Finance originally proposed.
State Librarian Virginia Lowell told American Libraries November 19 that “effective immediately, we are lowering the maximum number of hours that student helpers can work, from 19 to 15, and we are combining two Oahu bookmobile routes into one. These actions will allow us to meet the $196,000 restriction.”
Lowell said the library system was hit less hard than other state departments, attributing much of the “success” to letters, e-mails, and phone calls that poured in to protest cuts. “Historically, restrictions have been reversed, usually in the last quarter of the fiscal year, which will be April–June 2000,” but “there’s no guarantee that this will happen this time.”
Posted November 29, 1999.