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April 11, 2010

Cuts to library jobs, services, hours loom as state slashes aid

By BILL BOWMAN • GANNETT NEW JERSEY • April 11, 2010

c-n.com
TRENTON — Sherri Alberts minces no words in describing the importance to her of the Long Branch Free Public Library.

“It was a lifesaver for me,” said Alberts, 50.

She received computer training at the library that helped her apply for and get two jobs, said the lifelong Long Branch resident.

“And they weren't just any jobs,” she said. “They were good jobs.”

But now, Alberts said, she fears that others like her won't be able to avail themselves of these services if state aid cuts proposed by Gov. Chris Christie are enacted.

In fact, librarians throughout the state predict massive service and program cuts if Christie's proposed 74 percent cut in state aid becomes part of the state's Fiscal Year 2011 budget.

Christie has proposed slashing state aid to libraries from $14 million to $3.7 million as part of his effort to close an $11 billion deficit.

That would end statewide programs such as interlibrary loans and a program that offers electronic resources for small businesses, said Patricia Tumulty, executive director of the New Jersey Library Association.

It also would eliminate JerseyConnect, the program that allows the state's public libraries discounted access to the Internet.

Three of the four programs that serve libraries throughout the state and receive state aid would be eliminated, she said.

Speaking before the state Senate budget and appropriations committee on March 25, Tumulty said state funding for programs supporting or coordinating library resources has been eliminated.

“They are simply gone without any discussions on the impact to the residents of New Jersey,” she said of the programs. “This takes our funding level back to the 1970s when only books were required for library service, not computers, the Internet or electronic resources.”

The domino effect of the cuts, Tumulty said, will be the loss of $4.5 million in federal money, forfeited because the state's libraries will not be able to maintain their systems.

Should that happen, she said, programs such as the state's library for the blind and handicapped will be impacted.

“Although most services will not disappear exactly on July 1 (when the FY 2011 budget takes effect), I can certainly assure you that by January 2011, library service in New Jersey will be decimated,” she said.

Jim Hecht, director of the Somerset County library system based in Bridgewater, said the cuts would force him to “review our priorities and determine which of the eliminated services we will want to continue and then find a way to fund them. And with a budget that has been stable for the last few years, that will be no easy task.”

One issue the library system will have to deal with is the loss of interlibrary loans, Hecht said. The replacement, he said, would probably be a system in which patrons requesting the loan would have to pay a fee, and their access to books would be limited.

Ingrid Bruck, executive director of the Long Branch Public Library, said libraries such as hers will not be able to easily replace services and programs once they are gone.

One database now provided under a state contract costs about $80,000 a year, she said.

“We've got a $1.8 million budget,” she said. “We can't just replace what we don't have in our budget. Cuts have to come from someplace to replace those essential services, and for libraries, that means people. And when you cut people here, you cut services to special populations, such as teens.

“We're leveraging at the local level these services we get from the state,” Bruck said. “We don't have them at the local level to give.”

A Christie spokesman did not respond to a request for comment for this report.

At the same time of Christie's proposed aid cuts, state Assemblyman John DiMaio, R-Warren, has introduced a bill – A2555 – that would end the practice of towns funding public libraries based on the assessed value of the town's real estate.

Under the current funding formula, towns allocate to their libraries about $33 for every $100,000 of assessed valuation, Tumulty said.

DiMaio's bill would repeal that formula and replace it with a figure town governments feel is sufficient to run their libraries.

The bill has been referred to the Assembly housing and local government committee. There is no companion bill in the state Senate.
Bill Bowman: 732-643-4212; bbowman@app.com

Posted by tumulty at April 11, 2010 11:40 AM

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