Texas Libraries Face Federal Funding Cuts
Note: Here is a new report (see below) about a story that LJ’s Ian Chant first reported on about a month ago in the article, “Rejected Waiver Requests Put Five States in Danger of Losing IMLS Funding”
From The Texas Tribune:
The federal government is threatening to cut about 70 percent of its annual funding for Texas public libraries, because it says the state has failed to pull its own weight in library funding. As a result, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission would have to cut the competitive grant funds that in 2014 gave more than $1.5 million to programs like the Portland library’s Seniors in Cyberspace.
The federal cuts came after state lawmakers in 2011 made an unprecedented 64 percent funding cut in the 2012-13 state library budget. The Library and Archives Commission says it will appeal the federal decision.
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“It would mean the necessity to curtail several programs,” including the competitive grant program, [Mark] Smith [director of the [Texas] Library and Archives Commission said.
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Smith said the federal cutback would jeopardize statewide library services such as interlibrary loans and the competitive grant program. “The money gives libraries the ability to experiment and do some innovative programs,” he said.
Read the Complete Article From the Texas Tribune
See Also: LSSI VP Mark Smith Selected as Next Texas State Librarian (August 2013)
Hat Tip: @mattrweaver
Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Funding, Libraries, News, Public Libraries

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.