In order to close what he estimates as a $34.6-billion budget shortfall, California Gov. Gray Davis has proposed cutting statewide support of local libraries from the current $52 million to about $24 million. The measures, part of a budget proposal released January 10, are among $20.7 billion in total cuts over the next two years, including $4.5 billion taken from education programs.
To help ease the impact on libraries, Davis asked lawmakers to approve legislation allowing them “to charge user fees to cover administrative costs associated with providing direct or interlibrary loans of materials,” the Oakland Tribune reported January 15. The proposal would let libraries charge $1 for a book obtained from within the library’s county and $5 for one from another county, Deputy State Librarian Cameron Robertson told the Tribune. The plan met with immediate opposition from librarians. “The idea of these fees violates the fundamental philosophy of public libraries,” said Alameda County Librarian Linda Wood. “I think the public would be outraged.”
Davis’s budget also cuts about 10% in state aid to California State University and the University of California, for a total loss of about $700 million, the Los Angeles Times reported January 11. The effect on the schools’ libraries remained to be seen.
Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb proposed closing seven of the city’s 15 library branches in the wake of Davis’s cuts, which bring Oakland’s projected budget shortfall to $20.5 million for the fiscal year ending June 30. The library closings would net the city $2.1 million, said the Oakland Tribune.
“Our best guess is that the state will reduce its aid $670,000 countywide. The aid goes directly to our new book budget,” San Bernardino County Librarian Edward Kieczykowski told the January 7 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. “The governor has already proposed a $500,000 cut in our annual budget,” he added, noting that since the fiscal year runs through May 31, “we have already spent what will be left of the annual budget. This means no new books for the county libraries for the rest of the fiscal year.”
Seven of the Sacramento Public Library’s 26 branches reduced their hours January 2. The Carmichael Library, which has the system’s largest circulation, lost five hours weekly, and six others lost two, the Sacramento Bee reported January 5. The cutbacks were prompted by reduced revenues from a hotel tax, which had been allocated by the board of supervisors to expand library hours, as a result of a decline in tourism following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
For information on other cutbacks and closures at libraries nationwide, see the roundup in the special reports section of American Libraries Online and in the February 2003 American Libraries.
Posted January 20, 2003.