Help us!

I want to again remind you all of a few e-mails that I have received in the last few days from the Iowa Library Association and the State Library of Iowa regarding possible state budget cuts. The governor is proposing an 18% cut to state library funding for the FY 2009 budget. This would be a cut of roughly $1,119,000! The breakdown for those cuts would be as follows: The State Library would lose $135,000. The Library Service Areas (Like East Central Library Service) would lose $259,000. Finally, Enrich Iowa would lose $725,000.
Any budget cuts that affect libraries are serious, and trust me, it will not be easy for the State Library and the LSA's to swallow losing that money. But the real kicker of all of this is the $725,000 from Enrich Iowa. Enrich Iowa is a direct state aid program for Iowa's public libraries. Many libraries throughout the state receive aid from this program. The amount varies on the population size of the city. For example, if this budget cut goes through, we at HPL will lose roughly $2,200. I know that seems like a fairly small amount, but let me give you a little perspective...that $2,200 is almost what I get a year in my budget for purchasing new CD's. Ouch.
Larger libraries will see more of a cut. Waterloo is looking at roughly a $15,000 loss, Marion is looking at roughly $7,000 and Cedar Rapids is closer to $20,000. For a library in the position of Cedar Rapids (who is already facing another round of massive budget cuts at the city level) this state funding can provide crucial. At the opposite end, smaller libraries may rely on their share of this funding for helping offset the costs of new computers or even materials. Again, losing even $800 out of their budgets can be very detrimental to their services.
So please, do your part to help out all libraries in the state of Iowa and contact the governor at http://www.governor.iowa.gov/administration/contact/ and also your local legislators at http://www.legis.state.ia.us/findleg/ Let them know just how important your libraries are to your communities. We, as librarians can only do so much...the rest is up to you!