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Information for Librarians About the 2009-2011 State Budget

Governor's Budget Proposes Draconian Cuts for Connecticut Libraries; CLC, iCONN could disappear

scissors cutting bill

When Governor Rell announced her second proposed budget for 2009-2011, librarians and library supporters around the state were shocked to see how hard Connecticut's libraries were hit. Although she said that she was not cutting aid to municipalities, most of the cuts to the State Library's budget were aimed at programs that directly serve municipal libraries and the citizens who use them, as well as at cooperative programs that save money for all types of libraries.

Join the many librarians across the state who are mad as heck and not going to take it anymore! Calls and letters to the Governor and key legislators are needed to save these important programs.

What the cuts mean:

  • Suspend Funding for Statewide Digital Library - iCONN databases, now free to public, school, and academic libraries, with over 30 million searches, are GONE!

  • Suspend Funding for the Statewide Database Program - reQuest, the statewide catalog of 20.8 million holdings in CT libraries, which facilitates resource sharing and interlibrary loan, is GONE!

  • Suspend Funding for Connecticard Payments - CCard, which now reimburses municipal libraries for the 4.7 million transactions when they lend library materials to out-of-towners annually, is GONE!

  • Suspend Funding for Grants to Public Libraries - Annual state aid payments to 180 public libraries are GONE!

  • Suspend Funding for Cooperating Library Service Units (i.e. CLC) - The 46.5% discount libraries get on books through CLC, along with media coops, InfoAnytime, JobNow, CLC/OCLC Direct, the Programming Catalog, CT Library Jobline, roundtables, and discounts on databases, movie licensing, supplies, furniture, audiobooks, CDs, and DVDs and are GONE!

  • Reduce Funding for Interlibrary Loan Service - Connecticar, the delivery service that facilitates sharing of 2 million items annually among libraries in the 169 towns, is reduced by one third!

  • Connecticut Education Network (CEN) cuts - Also cut in the Department of Information Technology budget is CEN (Connecticut Education Network). "OE" items eliminated include software licenses, and internet services and local/long distance telecommunications which are now free to public libraries and schools.

From CLC's Executive Director Christine Bradley, a plea for your support of CLC, which will shut down completely if this budget proposal comes to pass:

"I take this time to send you an important message specifically about funding for CLC (aka "Cooperating Library Service Units") in the state budget. The contractual agreements for discounts which currently obligate book, media, supply, and database vendors are at risk if CLC goes away. Any of you whose library is part of a media cooperative, movie licensing agreement, Muzzy tape buy, Ebsco database coop, CLC/OCLC Direct, InfoAnytime, or buy databases from WALDO or use the Jobline or Programming Catalog, have a vested interest in the continued state funding of 'Cooperating Library Service Units,' a.k.a. CLC.

"You've no idea how uncomfortable it is for me to ask you to speak specifically for CLC's funding when so many programs are also at risk, but I'm worried. CLC is not the State Library agency; it is not the service centers; it is a non-profit corporation funded by state dollars and your libraries' dues and fees. If CLC loses the state funding, it goes away, just like the CLSUs did.

"As we send four busloads of happy librarians down to BookExpo this weekend, I wonder how many of them know that their ride was made possible because of a CLC partnership, just like the museum passes and the park passes and the performers' showcases and the roundtables and Trendspotting and so many cooperative grant projects are. (And we haven't even started JobNow yet!) We librarians have been cooperating for a long time, even before the 1976 Cooperating Library Service Units legislation. It would be a shame to lose our only statewide cooperative now, just when everyone else is finally seeing the benefits of cooperation!

"I thank you for all the support you have always given to your libraries and to your colleagues and to CLC. If you can write one more email, or make one more call, please visit CLA's "Key Officials to Contact" page for information about whom to contact for the greatest impact."



Media Coverage



A Letter of Support

From Rob Simon, Director, Canton Public Library:

Dear Governor Rell and State Legislators,

I am director of the Canton Public Library, which serves a town of 10,000 residents. I urge you strongly not to enact any of the "suspend funding" or "reduce funding" items specified in the Governor's second budget as they relate to the state's library system. These cuts will seriously affect local municipalities and their public libraries.

Public libraries serve everyone. Students of all ages, job seekers, investors, mothers of small children, retirees seeking new ways to live productive lives, people lacking computers and Internet at home -- all these and more come to us for assistance. The public library is a tax-supported institution that offers direct, personal, face-to-face service to the citizens of Connecticut municipalities. In the library, they can see their tax dollars at work. In the library, they can better themselves using the very tools their tax money has bought.

And Connecticut's citizens are using us: in Canton alone, library usage is up over 15%. The drastic second-budget cuts proposed by the Governor will cripple our efforts to serve Connecticut's residents. Libraries are success stories and definitely are not the place for the state to withhold funding.

Please don't suspend funding to the Cooperating Library Service Units and the Connecticut Library Consortium! Public libraries like Canton receive less than ONE PERCENT of the town budget -- our funding is extremely meager. CLC negotiates for us purchasing discounts for books (46.5%!), DVDs and CDs and other audiovisual items, information databases, licenses for showing movies at programs, processing supplies, furniture, and equipment. Library budgets are tiny and we need the discounts CLC negotiates for us.

Please don't reduce funding for the Interlibrary Loan Service! This means the Connecticar delivery van service. Libraries cannot possibly own all the resources their patrons want. Therefore, we have become models of how to pool resources and make dimes work like dollars -- we share what we have with sister libraries to help everyone's patrons. The Connecticar van service is the only method by which we can move our books and AV items around quickly and at reasonable cost. Without Connecticar, interlibrary loan and the statewide library card system will grind to a halt. It would be impossible to do through the US mail what Connecticar does for us -- it moves 2 million library items annually.

Please don't suspend funding for the statewide digital library -- ICONN! Most of us have budgets that can ill afford expensive information databases. Yet our patrons expect and rely on databases to do their research because database information is usually so up-to-date, comprehensive, and accurate. ICONN provides each library in Connecticut with a collection of over 30 databases that our patrons may access both in-house and from remote sites -- all for a mere $300/year. 30 million ICONN uses (many thousands of which are from Canton) show ICONN to be critical to library users. Without ICONN, we will have virtually nothing to offer in electronic resources. Local funding would never make up this loss due to high costs of negotiating individually.

Please don't suspend Connecticard payments! Libraries rely on this money to help develop and expand our collections which now are used not only by our own residents but also, in most places, by out-of-town residents. In Canton, we are heavily used by the citizens of New Hartford, Winsted, and Torrington. The Connecticard reimbursement is an assist to our materials budget. 5 million C-card transactions prove that this program, completely unique in the nation, is popular with state residents and is working. It is another model of libraries sharing to benefit patrons, and the payment dollars are important aids to our budgets and our resources. If Connecticard payments are lost, Canton would suffer a serious blow to its income -- approximately $14,000 annually.

Please don't suspend state grants to local libraries! These are of the same importance as are Connecticard payments. Canton receives an annual state library grant of about $1,700, which is important to us. In our town, approximately 75% of residents use the library, many with cards but also some without (using non-checkout services). We provide a useful educational and social service -- one ever-increasing in demand. The small state aid grant is a token of appreciation and help from Hartford. Libraries touch so many lives at such little cost. This state grant, modest as it is, is important.

Please don't suspend funding for the Statewide Database Program! This means ReQuest, the 21 million item statewide catalog. ReQuest helps facilitate resource sharing and interlibrary loan. While Canton belongs to a 30-member library consortium, not everything our patrons want and need is located within that network. A statewide catalog is key. Often, we need materials, ordinary and specialized. that aren't found in our library or any other in the region. Similarly, we need additional copies of books for our many book discussion groups. Without ReQuest, we cannot know what is owned by other libraries in other parts of the state. Our patrons ask us every day, "Does any other library own it?" Outside of our consortium catalog, ReQuest the the only way to answer.

Please don't reduce funding to the Department of Information Technology budget for the Connecticut Education Network! CEN provides every public library with free local/long distance telecommunications and a free Internet connection. CEN's gifts power Canton's 15 public-use computer terminals. We cannot afford to lose this link to resources we use every day to bring information to our patrons. Either our cash-strapped town would have to provide the funds to pay for these connections or else our library would have to do without computers.

Libraries are leaders in cooperation and spending tax money efficiently for the direct benefit of the citizens of Connecticut. Shouldn't this model be encouraged and supported?

Public libraries are partners with the school systems in providing information and learning to students at all levels. The schools receive so much -- the libraries get so little! To operate effectively, we need each of the state-assisted programs currently being targeted. It is simply wrong that the small amount of library funding received from Hartford should be cut.

We are doing an important job to better the lives of your citizens. Please help us by not reducing or suspending the funds that help make Connecticut's library system work so well.

Thank you for your consideration.

CLC - Connecticut Library Consortium

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