Library to Present Budget Proposal Tonight

Gov. Chris Christie's proposal won't just effect city and school budgets. The Summit Free Public Library is feeling the heat with last week's proposed elimination of its reference database and interlibrary loan funding, as well as a 50 percent cut to state aid.

Glenn Devitt, president of the library, will present at tonight's council budget workshop. City Administrator Chris Cotter's initial proposed budget already included a 2.13 perent reduction in library funding.

But Summit is also facing a bill that looks to get rid of the annual minimum requirement for municipal funding. This would make the library's share of municipal funds completely up to common council.

Submitted to the New Jersey Assembly last week, the bill A255 calls for the elimination of the 1/3 mil requirement. This requirement establishes a certain annual minimum funding level for a town's public library. Towns can fund above the minimum, which is not uncommon, but they cannot fund below it. The level is determined by looking at the value of all the real estate in a township and then allocating a certain percentage of that value to the local public library. 

"What this 1/3 mil does, even though it's not an ideal situation," Devitt said, "it at least puts library's on an equal footing."

Some municipalities in Morris County had previously proposed eliminating their libraries and sending their residents to neighboring towns. But the problem with this, Devitt said, is the town with the library pays for it through taxes and the neighboring town gets to use it for free.

Libraries, Devitt said, have also historically been sharing services for years through inter-library loans, cooperative pricing agreements and open borrowing.

Without a private foundation to help fund the library, if the funding minimum requirement is eliminated, library service could be eliminated, Devitt said.

From 2008 to 2009, circulation is up 18 percent to 50,199 and in first two months 2010, it's up 12.7 percent. In addition to the economy making it more difficult for people to purchase books, CDs and DVDs, Devitt said the increase could also been related to the library's new BluRay collection.

Christie's budget proposal calls for the elimination of all (that's $1.4 million) of the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative, a program administered by the State Library that makes valuable commercial reference databases, like ReferenceUSA, Business Source Premiere and Academic Search Premiere, available to academic and local libraries throughout the state and to the New Jersey business community.

The State Library would also lose all (that's almost $4.3 million) in network aid. If so, JerseyCat, the statewide online library catalog would likely cease to exist, putting an end to a statewide interlibrary loan system.

In addition, the governor has proposed that the State Library and its affiliate, Thomas Edison College, be merged with the State Museum and governed by Rutgers University.

"These are the most serious threats we have ever faced for New Jersey libraries," said a New Jersey Library Association spokesperson.