No budget cut
for libraries

But financial woes remain

'The main concern is that there
won't be any money to buy
library materials'

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Public libraries won't have their budgets cut under a two-year proposal from the state administration -- but they won't get money to buy new books either, a Board of Education committee has been told.

The board's Public Libraries Committee voted yesterday to approve the governor's recommended library budget for the 1999-2001 biennium, but vowed to pursue items the administration didn't support.

The Hawaii State Library System's $18.6 million annual budget will grow by less than $1 million a year under the governor's recommendation, which will be submitted to the state Legislature.

The library system had requested $6.7 million more for the 1999-2000 fiscal year and $10.7 million for the second half of the biennium.

Instead, the administration only approved a $989,000 request for each year for start-up funds for the new library at Princeville on Kauai.

"The main concern is that there won't be any money to buy library materials with," state Librarian Virginia Lowell said.

Among the items not approved was a $4 million request to buy new books and library materials.

Board member Kelly King said that although the budget remains intact, cuts to the budget throughout the years have hurt.

"The budget when I got on the board was like $20-plus million. Before that it was 24. Now we're down to 18, so it continually got cut," she said. "But not losing is still a cut because you should still be gaining."

State Budget Director Earl Anzai said the goal of the current budget process is to control government growth.

"Everybody wants more money," Anzai said. "We can't let it grow without limits."

The previous cuts, coupled with the Baker & Taylor book-buying controversy, have adversely affected the library's book collection.

"Over the past year (the library collection) has suffered," Lowell said. "People don't come back. They buy (the books). So we lose patronage."

And, she pointed out, when patronage goes down, so does a traditional source of funding to buy books: fees and fines. That is why Lowell is trying to get more dedicated funding in the budget to buy books.

The proposed budget and the decision not to beef up on books come during tough economic times, when people historically look to libraries for help in getting information, officials said.

For example, when schools can't get the books they need, they turn to the libraries. And when people are laid off from their jobs, they also turn to libraries for information to help in the search for new jobs.

John Penebacker, special assistant to the state librarian, said when sugar plantations along the Hamakua Coast on the Big Island closed down, circulation at branches there increased twofold, with laid-off workers finding information enabling them to begin new jobs, take various civil tests and start new businesses.