Mengle Memorial Library

Public Library Budget Cuts

In January public libraries across Pennsylvania will begin to show the repercussions of the Pennsylvania State Budget cuts that were announced in October. Overall, the public library subsidy was reduced by over 15 million dollars.  That is a 20.1% decrease in funds, an average of 25% cut in overall operating revenue of public libraries.

Darlene Marshall of the Mengle Memorial Library expressed concern about the additional losses some community members might not have heard about.  “We are losing one of the best searching tools ever provided!”   All Pennsylvania public libraries and school libraries will lose access to most databases in the Power Library, an online system that provides reliable reference and general information, magazines and newspaper articles, and pictorial information. Presently access is free to public and school library patrons at libraries. Further access has been available from home via public library homepages using library borrower’s cards.  Power Library resources are a great benefit to libraries in areas that were too small or poor to afford them on their own. The estimated value of these databases is between $60,000 and $80,000.

The Power Library databases provided an equal opportunity to high quality, educational online resources to everyone in Pennsylvania with a library card.  They are used by students writing reports and papers for their classes, teachers looking for new trends in teaching, mechanics needing auto repair information, and people of all ages wanting health information or access to hundreds of major newspapers.  The loss of these superior sources will limit the options people can turn to, using the Internet with its sometimes questionable information and from some unsubstantiated sources. 

Other library services funded by the state will also be affected due to state aid cuts. Statewide Library Card and the interlibrary loan functions through Access Pennsylvania will be changed. Begun in 1985 and with over 3,000 Pennsylvania libraries participating, interlibrary loan allowed patrons to borrow books statewide at no cost for the request, for the loan, or the delivery to and from. Marshall explained, “This ability to share books has saved small libraries like Brockway’s public library enormous amounts of money in book budgets while still providing the needed books to patrons.”

In addition to the loss in state aid, most public libraries are facing funding cuts from the local funding sources. Public libraries across the state will be forced to cut services or hours or new resources.  Public libraries provide free educational and recreational resources to people outside of a school environment.  “The loss of these provisions will hurt the people who use them most, the residents of Pennsylvania,” Marshall concluded.