The Senate version of the Florida state budget, proposed March 21, includes no funding for Gov. Jeb Bush’s plan to transfer the state library’s circulating collection from Tallahassee to Nova Southeastern University. However, the House version includes $2 million for the move, so the final details must be worked out in a joint conference to bring the two measures into agreement.
John Szabo, president-elect of the Florida Library Association, praised the Senate budget, saying in the March 25 Tallahassee Democrat that legislators “have been bombarded with thousands of calls, e-mails, letters, and personal visits.”
At least 200 FLA members, trustees, and library Friends were in Tallahassee for Library Days March 24–25, the association’s annual effort to lobby support from legislators. One librarian in attendance was Susan B. Kilmer, director of the St. Lucie County Library System in Fort Pierce, who said in the March 24 Vero Beach Press Journal: “Our person who takes care of interlibrary loans says [state officials] have already told her she could no longer order films and videos under the program, because the collection would no longer be available to her.”
“I’m very much in favor of keeping the state library where it is,” Senate President Jim King (R-Jacksonville) told the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s a legislative resource that needs to be preserved.” Support among House members also exists. “The money this would save won’t come close to the resource that would be lost,” said Rep. Stan Mayfield (R-Vero Beach).
Posted March 31, 2003.