Library Braces for Impact of Christie Cuts

Westfield Memorial Library officials are bracing for the impact of Gov. Chris Christie's decision to slash the state's library budget.

Christie's proposal cuts state library aid by 50-percent along with calling 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.

"The loss of any of those services will impact what we provide the residents of Westfield," library director Phil Israel said. "Some of the cuts will impact us more and some less."

Israel said the loss of the Jersey Connect program would hinder the library's current technology efforts, including eliminating the servers for library website, e-mail system and internal servers for card catalogues. He said the library would need to spend money to utilize a private firm to provide those services, which would lead to cuts in other parts of the library budget.

He sees the interlibrary loan program's elimination as being a hurt to residents, with either costs going up or services going down. The current system has a state delivery system for books from library to library. Any cuts from the state would either eliminate the service entirely or force the library to use the Post Office or a private delivery service, with the cost being born by the patron.

"I've been in the library business for 30 years and I've never worked in a library without interlibrary loan," Israel said. "People are used to an interlibrary loan system that is fast and efficient."

To make up for the loss of the databases that Christie has proposed, Israel said he will likely have library staff start reviewing each of the databases offered in Westfield, including those provide by the town and those by the state. this review would determine which state funded databases the library will continue and which locally funded databases the library will stop in the light of the Christie cuts.

At the same time as Christie proposes cuts, the library faces a challenge to its century old state funding formula.

Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Warren County) submitted legislation on Tuesday calling for a dramatic overhaul of the state's library funding system. 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.

Westfield's library currently receives a roughly $2.6 million budget, with $2.5 million being provided through the funding formula. The remainder comes from state aid and library generated revenue.

"If that bill goes through it will be up to the Town Council to fund the library as they see fit," Israel said.

Israel will be presenting a report on the Christie cuts to the library board of trustees at a meeting on Thursday night. He said the board will discuss the cuts but no final decision will be made on Thursday. Israel indicated that further study will be needed for the library budget, along with looking at potential shared purchasing programs put into place to offset the costs on town libraries to make up the services cut by Christie.

The library cuts are part of a series of cuts that Christie's budget proposal has placed on Westfield. The town's education aid has been cut by $4.22 million or 90-percent and the town's municipal aid has been cut by or 24-percent.

Councilman Keith Loughlin, a member of the library board, said he does not like seeing cuts but said they are necessary. Echoing other Republican leaders, Loughlin said Christie needs to make the cuts in order to balance the state budget.

"It's unfortunate that a town like Westfield is being punished through the loss of this funding because of years of mismanagement at the state and county level," he said.

Loughlin said outlying departments in the town will need to start making cuts because of the aid loss from Trenton. He noted that he is sensitive to the fact that services will be cut because of the lost funding.

"Westfielders are prepared to do their part and tighten their belts." he said.