Report: Cuts to Universities Could Threaten Alaska’s Unified Library Catalog

From Alaska Public Radio:

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s cuts to Alaska’s university system could dismantle a statewide library system that allows patrons to easily request more than 3 million titles from libraries across the state.

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The network links more than 80 libraries run by municipalities, school districts and university campuses.

“It’s been a vision of libraries for a long time to figure out a way to create a statewide system to do something like this,” said university librarian Mike Robinson, who helped build the system at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

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To be clear, the governor’s vetoes wouldn’t automatically doom the Alaska Library Catalog. But Juneau librarian Robert Barr – who pulls double duty as president of the Alaska Library Association – says its days would likely be numbered.

“I have a hard time seeing UAA and UAF and UAS continuing to support that service with cuts of this magnitude,” he said Monday.

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