New York: “Area Libraries Face State Library Aid Cuts”
From The Lansing Star:
The Finger Lakes Library System (FLLS) and its 33 member libraries in Cayuga, Cortland, Seneca, Tioga and Tompkins County stand to lose 4.3 percent of library aid under Governor Cuomo’s proposed 2017-2018 budgets. The Governor also eliminated $136,080 local libraries receive in construction aid to do much needed renovations or expansions to aging library buildings.
While all 33 libraries will see funding cuts unless library aid is restored, the biggest cut will be sustained by the Finger Lakes Library System. The System helps local libraries better serve their communities through cooperation, sharing resources, and by offering cost-effective services. For example, in 2016, Finger Lakes Library system sent and received 391,564 items for interlibrary loan, helping smaller libraries offer more collections to their patrons. 57,063 eBooks and 36,094 eAudiobooks were downloaded throughout its five counties and FLLS was able to offer a new streaming service, hoopla, that added streaming music and movies for free downloads.
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Filed under: Funding, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users
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.