Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 25, 1993 TAG: 9312250068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B6 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But that's all changed this year - at least when it comes to a series of hearings on the state budget scheduled by two Virginia General Assembly money committees.
Cuts in state aid to Virginia public libraries in recent years have seriously hurt their ability to provide the public with up-to-date books and a wide range of reference materials, librarians say. The budget cuts have particularly hurt rural libraries, where state aid makes up a larger portion of their budgets.
In Roanoke County, local taxpayers pay to keep up library buildings and pay the salaries of library employees; but state aid makes up 70 percent of the budget for buying books, magazine subscriptions and various reference materials.
In the 1993-94 fiscal year, Roanoke County's libraries lost more children's books through normal wear than the county was able to buy back, said Spencer Watts, the county's head librarian.
The book budget, which makes up 11 percent of the county library's total operating budget, has been cut by one-fourth in the past three years - a time during which hardback book costs increased by 12 percent, Watts said. Inflation has made the impact of the budget cuts even more damaging.
Faced with the state cuts, Roanoke County has had to eliminate some magazine subscriptions and has bought fewer books. The purchase of reference materials such as data bases on CD-rom and microfilm copies of magazines has been cut back.
"We're not buying the kind of books we need to keep our collections strong and current," Watts said.
The state's public librarians are appealing to the public to help them pressure the General Assembly to restore full funding to public libraries, which would require an additional $7 million in the 1994-95 state budget.
"We just can't sit back anymore and wait for this money to come," said Charlotte Lewis, head librarian in Washington County and president of the Virginia Public Library Directors Association.
The General Assembly created a system of state aid for public libraries in 1970, following a hard-fought battle over the preceding decade. It was passed with the kind of strong grass-roots support from library patrons that the librarians are calling on now to help restore state funding to its full level, Lewis said.
State aid, by law, cannot be used for a library's general operating expenses. Eighty percent is used to buy books. The aid is based on a formula that takes into account the population and geographic size of an area and provides for a state match of 40 cents for every local dollar spent up to a $250,000 maximum.
The last time the General Assembly provided full state funding under the formula was 1989, and state aid peaked at its highest level of $11 million in 1990, Lewis said. Gov. Douglas Wilder recommended $5 million for libraries during the current fiscal year, but the legislature raised that to $10 million, a figure still $7 million less than what the funding formula calls for.
If funding remains at the same level next year, as Wilder is recommending in his budget, Lewis' library stands to lose over $67,000. Lonesome Pine Regional Library, a system that serves four counties in far Southwestern Virginia, would lose nearly $238,000, Roanoke County more than $143,000, Roanoke City, $144,000, and Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library nearly $168,000.
Cuts in state aid have the most impact on smaller, rural libraries. For instance, state aid accounts for 21.5 percent of the budgets of the state's four smallest libraries serving populations of less than 5,000 but amounts to less than 5 percent of the budgets of the 16 libraries in the state that serve more than 100,000 people.
Lewis said librarians are encouraging people to attend a series of budget hearings that are being held across the state by the State Senate Finance Committee and the House of Delegates Appropriations Committee. In Western Virginia, hearings will be held Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Virginia Highlands Community College in Abingdon and Jan. 5 at 1 p.m. at Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg.
The librarians also are asking people to write their legislators to support state aid, and flyers, letters and buttons are being distributed, Lewis said. Librarians will hold a legislative day in Richmond in January to show their support for state funding.
All of this effort is not too much out of character for librarians, Watts said. "We're going to be persistent."
The librarians are hoping the users of the 90-plus public libraries in the state will make the most noise, Watts said.
This is not a time for librarians to be `shushing people?
"No way. Speak out as loudly as you can," he said.
by CNB