Lake County libraries would lose approximately $250,000 in state funding under budget cuts proposed by California Governor Jerry Brown.
Brown”s 2011-2012 budget proposes to eliminate all state funding for California libraries: $30.4 million in state funds from the Public Library Foundation, transaction-based reimbursement and funding for literacy services.
In Fiscal Year 2009-2010, Lake County Library received $267,112 in state funds ? $38,299 in literacy funding, $206,136 for transaction-based reimbursement (inter-library loan) and $22,677 from the Public Library Fund ? according to figures compiled by the California Library Association (CLA).
Lake County Librarian Susan Clayton said that state funding for this year is closer to $250,000. The loss of state funding would be a 25-percent cut to the library budget and a 50-percent cut to the literacy program budget.
CLA President Paymaneh Maghsoudi said that the proposed cuts will jeopardize library hours, staff positions and the availability of books and materials. Maghsoudi added that the cuts will also potentially dismantle the cooperative system of borrowing and loaning books known as transaction-based reimbursement (TBR).
Each week that I volunteer at the Lakeport branch of the Lake County Library, I pull items that have been requested by users of Lake, Mendocino and Sonoma County libraries. These items include books, both fiction and non-fiction, on a variety of subjects ? health, resume-writing, legal issues and home improvement, to name only a few ? as well as CDs, audio books and DVDs.
Throughout our three counties, items are being pulled against similar lists two or three times each day. Library materials are continuously traveling within our three-county network to connect people with the information they need.
The Sonoma County Library, which hosts our libraries” shared catalog, calculated that library cardholders placed more than 800,000 holds during fiscal year 2009.
If library patrons can”t find what they want within their domestic catalogs, our libraries also exchange materials via inter-library loan among a North Bay Cooperative Library System connecting Contra Costa, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties (www.nbcls.org).
Imagine the reduction in available resources if our libraries could no longer afford to share inter-library loan materials.
Imagine the greater devastation to libraries” literacy programs, which provide services free-of-charge to the people who need them.
Even if the budget cuts did not result in a loss of services, libraries would still have to do more with less and meet a growing demand for services.
I”ve observed that a greater number of employers require applications to be submitted online, as do a greater number of government assistance agencies. But through past experience I also remember that when I was most in need, I was also unconnected to the Internet ? except through the use of computers at my local library.
On Oct. 4, 2010, “California Library Snapshot Day,” 169,707 people used a library computer according to figures reported to the CLA by 1,140 public, academic, school and special libraries and library jurisdictions across the State of California.
The CLA is asking library supporters to contact their representatives in state government. Clayton said that letters, envelopes and mailing addresses are available at each of the Lake County branches plus e-mail, fax and telephone number.
State Assembymember Wes Chesbro can be reached through his Ukiah field office, 311 N. State St., Ukiah, CA 95482, 463-5770. State Senator Noreen Evans can be reached via her Napa field office, 1040 Main St. Suite 205, Napa, CA 94559-2605, 224-1990. Our representatives can also be contacted online through the CLA website.
For more information about potential impacts of the proposed $30.4 million in cuts, visit www.cla-net.org/. To view complete statistics about library use in California during “California Library Snapshot Day,” visit www.cla-net.org/snapshotday/.
Cynthia Parkhill is the focus pages editor for the Record-Bee and editor of the Clear Lake Observer-American. She can be contacted at ObserverAmerican@gmail.com or 263-5636 ext. 39.
