The worsening economy has resulted in a massive wave of cutbacks and closures at libraries nationwide. In addition to previously reported actions such as Seattle Public Library’s systemwide shutdown for a week in December, cost-cutting measures have ranged from Sunday closings in Erie, Pennsylvania, to the permanent shutting of all branches in Binghamton, New York. And the looming effects of statewide cuts in California, Massachusetts, and elsewhere remain to be seen.
Binghamton’s drastic step came after the Broome County (N.Y.) Public Library System received a $240,000 budget cut from the city. In response, the system closed all four of its branches on December 31.
Although some staff will be transferred to the system’s main library downtown, which will remain open because it is funded by the county, others will be laid off, the WIVT-TV Web site reported December 31. The collection was to be moved to storage over the first few weeks of January.
Shutting the branches will cost the city $100,000–half will go toward paying salaries through March, and the rest to buy out building leases and to move and store books and equipment, WIVT-TV reported December 5.
“I feel that we need the neighborhood libraries, for us, the older ones, and for the children,” said Marie Benedict, who comes in once a week to send e-mail to her great-grandchildren. “I grew up with a library.”
The cutbacks reflect a budgetary crisis that has hit towns in upstate New York particularly hard this year, the Associated Press reported December 31: In addition to the slumping economy, health and liability insurance premiums skyrocketed this year and municipalities are being asked to make larger contributions to the state’s public-employee pension fund.
Local funding crucial
Although most libraries in Michigan have had to trim budgets, the state’s economic slump is having a worse effect on those supported almost entirely by local revenue.
The Berkley Public Library, dependent on the city’s budget that is now squeezed by state revenue-sharing cuts and the defeat of two proposals to increase the city’s millage rate, laid off Children’s Librarian Alexander Krentzin January 10. The decision is not popular with some parents, who have appreciated his popular storytime sessions for preschoolers in the reading room he helped design four years ago. “I know some of my friends would like to picket about this,” patron Sandy Johnson said in the December 26 Detroit Free Press.
The economic downturn has at the same time forced more people, including children, into libraries than ever, according to Michigan Library Association Executive Director Stephen Kershner. “Where do many children start to read?” he asked. “Not at school. It’s in the public library.”
Local funding makes a crucial difference in Michigan, which in 2001–2002 provided the lowest level of funding for public libraries ($1.59 per capita) among states with similar populations, according to a study by the Public Library Funding Initiative Group, a grassroots effort working to provide better state library funding. The cash-rich Clinton-Macomb Public Library is supported by a one-mill property tax approved by voters in 1998 and devoted strictly to library needs. The library opened a new branch in 2001, another in 2002, and in 2003 will open one of the biggest libraries in the county with more than 100 computers, the Free Press reported.
Nightline’s decline
Declining usage combined with budget woes forced New Jersey to end its statewide late-night telephone reference service. As of December 31, callers to New Jersey Nightline heard a recording stating that the service had been discontinued due to a decline in callers and suggesting that patrons use the state’s Internet-based Q and A NJ service or visit their local libraries, the Parsippany Daily Record reported January 6.
Nightline, which connected callers to a live librarian until midnight seven days a week for the past 12 years, fielded some 3,000 questions a month, according to its Web site. The service was supported by the New Jersey Library Network and administered by the New Jersey State Library.
“Nightline is ending because of our decline in usage,” Cheryl McBride, a reference librarian at East Brunswick Public Library and the manager of Nightline, said in the December 2002 New Jersey Monthly. “It is no longer really cost-effective.”
“They were always very helpful, very efficient, and they always came up with the information,” Jim Elekes, an adjunct professor at Essex County College and the County College of Morris, told the Record. “The problem now becomes: You have to have a computer,” he added, citing statistics that only 42% of the state’s households own computers.
Statewide slashing
In order to close what he estimates as a $34.6-million budget shortfall, California Gov. Gray Davis has proposed $20.7 in billion cuts over the next two years, including $4.5 billion taken from education programs. Libraries are bracing for the effects of Davis’s cuts. “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.”
Massachusetts has cut $7.1 million from its appropriation to local and regional library systems, the Providence (R.I.) Journal reported January 7. In an editorial, the paper observed that the Swansea Public Library had recently closed its South Swansea branch, which had served residents for 50 years; the town was unable to afford an estimated $14,000 in repairs necessary to keep it open.
Colorado’s libraries lost $2.3 million in July when Gov. Bill Owens vetoed a line item in the state budget that included funds for a statewide interlibrary loan program aimed at aiding small libraries with limited budgets. “For close to 30 years, every public library and many academic libraries depended on Denver Public Library as a second source of materials,” Summit County Library Director Joyce Dierauer told the December 19 Denver Post. “When the governor cut off money for the Colorado Resource Center, that meant they could no longer provide the service.” The cuts forced DPL to lay off 14 staffers, said Director of Access Services Lynn Taylor; as a result the library, which gets 85,000 requests for materials in a typical year, can only handle about 12,000.
Most Virginia libraries faced at least 15% budget cuts in the wake of sweeping cuts ordered by Gov. Mark R. Warner in response to a $2-billion budget gap, the Associated Press reported January 8. Fraternity members at the University of Virginia volunteered to move books to make way for renovations to the short-staffed Science and Engineering Library, the article said, and the library has called on retirees to help with cataloging.
In Oklahoma, Assistant Director Mary Moroney said that although the state’s contribution to the Eastern Oklahoma District Library System has been cut by 5%, “We get most of our income from property taxes, so we really don’t expect to see any major decreases, at least not this fiscal year.” However, she told the January 3 Tahlequah Daily Press that low interest rates caused the system to lose $40,000 on its certificates of deposit last year, so “We’ve had to tighten our belts a little here and there, but we’re not hurting too bad.”
Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle’s decision to cut discretionary money in all state departments by 5% will result in a 10% loss of operating hours in the statewide 50-branch system, library Administrative Services Officer Keith Fujio told the January 13 Honolulu Advertiser. “We’ve been looking at all kinds of alternate revenue schemes, such as pay for services, or pay for making copies or for a library card,” said Fujio. “If someone downloads from the Internet now, we don’t charge, and we provide the paper, the toner cartridge, the printer. We’ve wanted to look at user charges.”
Among other cutbacks gathered from online news sources and other reports:
—Gordon Flagg