California calamity
California’s new state budget “is going to have a huge chilling effect on the ability of cities and special districts to use the funds” that had been allocated to them, said California Library Association President Barbara Roberts. She told AL that the $85-billion budget, signed July 28 after a months-long standoff between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature, included a provision to take $1.9 billion from Proposition 1A property tax funds
and $1.7 billion from local redevelopment funds that would have gone to localities. “Both of these, of course, will affect counties, and special districts,” said Roberts, “and it will trickle down to the libraries.” Roberts noted that the state’s libraries have already taken operating-budget hits of 5–38%. The Palm Springs Public Library, where she is director, has laid off staff, enacted furloughs, and made other budget cuts, “so we’re already hurting.” The only good news, said Roberts, is that two special funds—the Transaction-Based Reimbursements funds from California Library Services Act grants and the Public Library Fund—have remained stable after dropping 10% in 2008. —G.F.
august/september 2009
Board of Education member Mary . She noted that some branches on Oahu are within 5–6 minutes driving distance of each other. “They never considered closing those libraries in Honolulu,” she said.
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The libraries targeted for closure were the Holualoa, Pahala, and Kealakekua branches on the Big Island; the Ewa Beach branch on Oahu; and the Hana branch on Maui. Burns said the list was based on low usage, proximity to other branches, staffing vacancies, and other factors. Board member Karen Knudsen said that Burns “just didn’t have time to look at all the alternatives,” noting that he and his staff only had two weeks to develop the proposal, and that “this will give him more time to look at the whole picture.” Local objections to the announced closures were particularly strong in the isolated community of Hana, which is separated from the rest of the island of Maui by a narrow 52mile road and 58 bridges; the trip to the nearest town takes around two hours. Some 335 residents attended a meeting at the branch about the proposed closure July 14; “I mean, 335 people out of a community of 2,000, that’s a lot of support,” said Branch Manager Holly Braffet in the July 15 Maui News. “The Hana community spoke loud and clear: ‘Do not close our library. This is our lifeline,’” said Maui
Some librarians spend their off hours with quad roller skates and full-contact action. April Witteveen, left, a teen librarian at Deschutes Public Library in Bend, Oregon, leaves her opponents in the Jet City Roller Girls roller derby league with a pro-library message as she leaves them in the dust. Below, Beth Hollis (aka MegaBeth), a reference librarian in the Popular Culture Division of Akron–Summit County (Ohio) Public Library, wears number 796.21, the Dewey Decimal number for skate sports, as she competes for the Rubber City Rollers.
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Photo: Hennepin County Library
Targeted for closure
derby days & dewey decimals
american libraries
address a $5.7-million cut in funding. The proposal, to address a nearly 20% reduction in the Hawaii State Public Library System’s budget, also included $1.3 million in furloughs and other salary savings and the elimination of 67 vacant positions to save $2.2 million. However, at its July 16 meeting the board deferred a vote on the closures and directed Burns to submit a new plan that did not include shutting branches. While the board approved the furloughs and position cuts, it passed motions protecting the five branches that had been targeted for closure, the Honolulu Advertiser reported July 17.
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