Posted June 4, 2004.

Rochester Libraries Take Another Budget Hit

The Rochester (N.Y.) Public Library may be facing more reductions in hours and staff as a result of the mayor’s latest budget proposal, released May 20. Mayor William Johnson Jr. has called for hours to be cut by four a week at seven of 10 branches, for a savings of $176,000. Johnson also seeks a savings of $565,400 at the Central Library, operation of which is shared by Monroe County, which will likely mean a reduction in staff and materials.

These new cuts come on top of others over the past several years. “When you talk about the library situation, you have to look at it in the context of the last three or four years, because that’s when we started to take cuts,” former Interim Library Director Carole Joyce said in the June 2 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Over the last two years the library has suffered a 30% staff reduction and lost its bookmobile service.

State aid to the libraries has remained the same since 1997. “If state aid had kept up with inflation, that difference is about $500,000 totally,” Joyce said. More changes could come after the Rochester and Monroe County library boards determine how to deal with an anticipated freeze in county funding.

Posted June 4, 2004.