The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has released the latest report on the State Library Administrative Agencies (SLAA) Survey. The biennial survey, conducted in FY 2016, assesses the condition of SLAAs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The IMLS report found that SLAAs experienced significant decreases in revenues and staffing during the economic recession from 2007 to 2009, with no sustained gains afterward.
Source: State Library Administrative Agencies Survey (Fiscal Year 2016) The survey found that over the past 12 years, SLAA revenues declined by over a fifth, while expenditures fell in parallel by 22 percent. Most of this decline occurred between the onset of the economic recession in December 2007 and its end in June 2009. However, SLAAs funded by their state’s department of education had much higher revenues and expenditures in comparison to other libraries funded through other administrative structures.
However, despite decreased revenue, 31 SLAAs reported providing statewide reading programs, an increase from 61 to 86 percent over two years.
Additional services offered by SLAAs remained relatively unchanged. Forty-nine of the 51 SLAAs provided consulting services, most commonly for library management/organizational development, continuing education, and youth services. Thirty-nine SLAAs provided some form of literacy support.
In line with the decline in revenues, the survey found that the number of SLAA staff members declined by 24 percent over the past decade. In FY 2016, there were 2,633 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions across all SLAAs; most (49 percent) were in library services, followed by library development (20 percent), other services (17 percent), and administration (14 percent). Source: State Library Administrative Agencies Survey (Fiscal Year 2016)
SLAAs funded by departments of state or administration had the smallest percentage decline in staffing (14 percent) and those funded by departments of education had the largest decline in staffing (40 percent).
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.
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