At a press conference on 29 October the Governor’s Office announced that Governor Patrick is considering closing the State Library of Massachusetts as a cost-saving measure. The State Library of Massachusetts now has an online petition to collect support to ensure that these collections remain freely accessible to all members of the public.

SLA Action Alert

Perhaps five branches of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP) won’t be closing, as previously announced. Yesterday, as CLP submitted an updated 2010 budget to the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD), projecting a structural gap of $1.5 million for 2010, increasing to $5.1 million by 2014, City Council members announced a new effort to support the library.

City Council President Doug Shields proposed a $600,000 grant this year and next—not enough to cover the entire funding gap, but a significant change in the city’s relationship with the library. The shift in city funds would be discussed at a Council meeting November 12.

Election Day in Ohio reaped an unprecedented show of library support: Voters in Ohio approved 29 of the 37 library levies placed on ballots by cash-starved public libraries reeling from 11th-hour cuts to state aid for FY2010–12, with one more apparently passing but close enough to require a recount. The impressive display translates into a reprieve for 81% of the library systems that turned to Ohioans in the wake of an 11% loss in state aid. Coupled with declining state-tax revenues, libraries are enduring budget cuts of 20%–25%, the Ohio Library Council explained November 4.

After nearly 100 days of deadlock on the Pennsylvania state budget, legislators last week agreed to a compromise, including a 26.7% slash in state support for libraries, from $93,246,000 to $68,322,000, cutting back on direct public library aid and even more so on statewide services.

Given the national economic downturn, and particularly Pennsylvania’s painful situation, the cut was seen by library advocates as a “could have been worse” situation. At one point, a 55.3% cut was considered, and Philadelphia, anticipating a “doomsday” budget if the legislature refused to approve a new sales tax, planned to shut all its libraries down.

The people of Philadelphia can breathe easy now.  It was announced earlier this evening that the Pennsylvania State senate passed bill 1828 by a vote of 32 to 17.  This was the legislation that was needed for the City of Philadelphia to avoid the layoff of 3,000 city workers and the forced the closing of all library branches.

A little more than two weeks before the Free Library of Philadelphia was prepared to close, under a “doomsday” budget prepared in case the state legislature refused to pass a new sales tax, the state Senate has acted, and the library will remain open.

The affluent Chicago suburb of Oak Brook has long relied on significant tax revenues from its large mall in lieu of property taxes, and those revenues have supported library service at more than $160 per capita for a community of about 8700. Sales taxes, however, are down, and city officials want to cut $400,000—nearly one-third—from the library’s $1.35 million budget.

Aiming to consolidate government during lean times, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has proposed eliminating the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries via executive order, transferring most Library of Michigan functions to the Department of Education, abolishing the position of State Librarian, and downgrading certain library services, including circulation and interlibrary loan of state materials.
The Library of Michigan, a major component of the department, would be split up.

In response to an anticipated state deficit of $2 billion for FY2009-11, the Hawaii State Public Library System (HSPLS) faces a 20 percent budget cut and has come up with a plan that includes freezing all 67 vacant positions and closing five branches across the 51-branch, state-wide system. Further staff reductions are possible.
The cuts amount to more than $5.7 million, nearly 20 percent of HSPLS’s current budget, according to the Honolulu Advertiser. State Librarian Richard Burns projects that, if HSPLS doesn’t reduce current service hours, the system would operate at a $1 million deficit in 2010.

Ohio library officials learned Monday that they were spared the 30 percent budget cut proposed by Gov. Ted Strickland, but the biennial budget passed Monday by the Ohio Legislature nevertheless contained more bad news for the state’s 251 libraries.
The Associated Press reported Monday that the new Ohio budget reduces library funding by $84 million — about 11 percent — over the next two years, instead of the $227 million the governor proposed.