Suffolk libraries lose $500,000 in state aid
Local librarians say that less cash will force service cuts
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Public libraries sustained a disproportionate budget cut from New York State that will require curtailment of services to patrons, said Kevin Verbesey, the Suffolk Cooperative Library Services' director.
A 9 percent cutback in state aid, amounting to about $9 million, means that libraries throughout the state will have to serve more patrons with less money, he said.
In Suffolk County alone the cuts amount to about $500,000, he said.
Gov. David Paterson had called for an 18 percent cutback.
"We're extremely disappointed in the budget process," Mr. Verbesey said. While schools were made whole with federal stimulus money -- a fact that he applauds -- he said he can't help wondering why the government wouldn't see the same needs for its libraries.
It will impact the ability of the cooperative to provide the shared services with its members libraries, Mr. Verbesey said. Interlibrary loans of materials to libraries in other states, which were provided without charge, will now cost $10 each, he said.
"We're going to continue to fight the good fight," he said.
Local librarians joined those from throughout the state in lobbying in Albany, but to no avail, Mr. Verbesey said.
Riverhead Free Library director Lisa Jacobs was among those who trekked upstate last month. She returned optimistic that proposed cuts would be eliminated.
Now she's working to try to offset the impact of the losses of some county cooperative services.
It won't be easy, she said.
Patrons will likely have to wait longer to receive interlibrary loans and she worries that the homework help line the county instituted this year could disappear. Libraries already do so much with so little, she said.
Riverhead has seen a 25 percent increase in patronage this year as more people cancel home broadband service and use library computers and stop buying books, DVDs and other media materials the library offers.
"It's frustrating and quite shortsighted on the state's part," Mattituck-Laurel Library director Kay Zegel said.
Her library has never been busier.
Southold Free Library director Caroline MacArthur said she's extremely disappointed, noting that the cuts to the cooperative will have "a trickle-down effect" to homes throughout the community.
jlane@timesreview.com
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1 comments found
Library Cuts : 4/10/2009
Very unfortunate -- I hope that the Riverhead and Mattituck libraries will be able to do more with less... but we'll just have to see.
