The people of New York State will lose many of their library services and programs under the budget cuts proposed by Governor Pataki for the 2003-04 state fiscal year.
If the Legislature does not restore the $13.3 million to the library community which the Governor seeks to eliminate, there will be drastic reductions in library services, both in small and rural communities and in large urban settings.
The Governor has treated libraries unfairly, proposing a disproportionately large cut on funding for the library community. The 15% library cut is approximately twice the percentage reduction of 8% imposed on education aid for schools. The New York Library Association and its 3000 members question why they are being asked to absorb such a huge cut, particularly when they have not been given any sustained increases in state aid since 1998.
"The $13.3 million cut reduces library funding to a 1993 level," said Susan Lehman Keitel, Executive Director of the New York Library Association. In 1993 libraries were not providing Internet access for their patrons or electronic databases, two of the most popular services libraries now offer. "Collections will suffer, inter-library loaned materials will be reduced and slowed, and health information for professionals will be drastically cut back under the Governor�s proposed reduction," she said.
75.6 % of the residents in New York State favor an increase in their taxes if the increase will go to support libraries, according to a Zogby poll done in October of last year. An earlier poll done in 2002 showed that more than 70% of the population believed that libraries were very important to their communities, and 89% of the representative sample polled wanted the government to spend more money on libraries.
"Given these polls, it is poor public policy at best, and harmful to the citizens of New York State at worst, to erode the one single service people use more than any other," said Mrs. Keitel. Public libraries provide literacy programs, employment and job information, story hours, and homework help, to mention a few programs. School libraries help students learn, achieve, and meet the standards imposed on them. Academic libraries contribute to research, quality higher education and training, and the strength of the health care community in New York State. Library systems support all these activities and more.
According to Mrs. Keitel, "reductions in aid to the library community are directly harmful to the majority of all citizens in this State. They erode the quality of life, of work, and of school for all New Yorkers."
For additional information, contact the New York Library Association at 1-800-252-6952.
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I'm mad again. Every single time I read about this, I feel the need to beat up somebody, preferably someone in government.
I talked to my parents today, which I do every Sunday, the dutiful daughter that I am, and my mother informed me that my dad and some of his cronies are putting together a massive anti-war, anti-government, generally anti-Bush rally in my home town. Mom says dad is feeling like it's 1967 all over again. He's all revved up. So, you see where I get it from. Blah. I'm going to go eat some chocolate. Maybe then I won't think about being mad.
