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FW: Seattletimes.com: Cutting State Library not sound budget poli cy



Title: FW: Seattletimes.com: Cutting State Library not sound budget policy

Sharon Butcher and list,

Before you start jumping all over the media for what they report or do not report, please be aware that on the same day they published the story regarding the State Library, they also published the editorial below which supports keeping the library. The full text is below the link if you can't pull up the link quickly.

Kit Leary

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To view the entire article, go to http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis/web/vortex/display?slug=libraryop25&date=20020128

Cutting State Library not sound budget policy
By Kirk Kirkland
Special to The Times                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

In the rush to find $1.2 billion in budget cuts, Gov. Gary Locke has proposed eliminating the Washington State Library.
In saving $9 million in library operating costs, local and county libraries lose $3 million in federal grants and will individually have to replace other services costing more than $8.3 million. Add the capital cost of replacing the State Library by a subsequent administration and the proposal adds up to bad arithmetic.

The gravity of the budget cuts is severe. Here is a governor who has championed education in his first term who is now considering a legacy of leading the first state to eliminate a state library. The proposal provides only short-term gain in balancing the state budget. But rather than solve a problem, this merely spreads the financial shortfall to city, county and other institutions' library budgets.

History shows that when the economy and the financial forecasts look dim, the robust American economy bounces back within a few years. The capital cost of rebuilding the State Library, training a new staff and purchasing equipment and materials will cost more than a one- or two-year savings of the $9-million operating budget. This is truly a shortsighted fix with long-term consequences.

In this information age, the value of having government documents and other historic information collected in a centralized location is invaluable. Recently, I requested government documents from the Environmental Protection Agency. I received them three weeks later. A similar request of the State Library's government documents was mailed to me in three days through my local library.

The governor proposes giving the State Library collection to academic libraries. Will he also include money for additional storage and staff to serve the public? Currently, private researchers are welcome to use academic libraries, but only students and professors can check out the materials. Inter-library loan is not possible with several state universities and is impossible with most private colleges.

A statewide database-licensing project developed by the State Library saves over 1,800 libraries a total of $8.3 million per year to buy individual subscriptions. By cutting the State Library expenditure of $650,000 for this subscription purchase, many of the small and rural libraries could not afford to purchase these databases individually. This is not a savings, just more bad arithmetic.

Each year, $3 million in federal grants are distributed through the State Library. These funds purchase Internet and database access in small-town public libraries. Many of the smaller libraries would have none of these services at all without the federal grants. In this age of the "digital divide," such cost-cutting hurts poor and rural people who tend to have fewer opportunities to take advantage of the information age.

Large city and county library systems faced with budget restraints will also miss these federal funds that are only distributed through the State Library system.

In the information age, the State Library is as essential for our economy as a good transportation system.
While trucks are stalled on congested highways and the Legislature struggles to increase freight mobility, the governor's budget pulls the plug on the free flow of information and disconnects many small and medium-size libraries' chances to participate in the Internet.

Budget writers in the Legislature need to consider the long-term implication of dismantling the State Library System. Washington will not be economically competitive in the future without this 150-year-old institution.

Kirk Kirkland is an environmental advocate and writer. He lives in Tacoma, where he receives access to library materials throughout the state through his local city library.








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