Posted June 9, 2003.

Pennsylvania Librarians Rally for Restored Funding

Some 600 library supporters gathered at the Pennsylvania State Capitol building in Harrisburg June 3 to urge legislators to restore $37.5 million in proposed cuts to library services in the 2003–2004 budget. The state’s General Assembly slashed library funding by half in March, but Gov. Ed Rendell later announced plans to use part of an $897-million federal tax-cut package to deliver the dollars.

“We’re here to get the state’s investment restored to where it was . . . at $75 million,” Pennsylvania Library Association Executive Director Glenn Miller said in the June 4 Harrisburg Patriot-News, in order to avoid closings and layoffs. Rural libraries, which are more dependent on state money, would be hit the hardest, added Chester County Library board member Jim Norton.

However, other state agencies are vying for a share of the federal windfall. Rep. Ronald Buxton (D-Harrisburg) told the Patriot-News, “Right now, the legislature has so many balls in the air it’s hard to predict . . . what cuts will be restored.”

Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy showed his support by declaring the day “Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Day,” according to the June 4 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Carnegie Library Director Herbert Elish spoke at a “Save the Library” rally at the Oakland branch, saying, “We hear that people are listening to us in Harrisburg. The word is getting through, but this is not the end of the work.”

Posted June 9, 2003.