Libraries struggling with budget cuts
By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Education Writer
For a while, things were looking rosier at Hawai'i's public libraries, with money to expand Internet services and buy new books for the first time in five years.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
But just as the system was getting back on its feet, it's again looking down the barrel of a string of potential cuts that could jeopardize services and that even threaten to leave a new Kapolei library as an empty shell.
Construction of a library for Kapolei has begun, but money to supply it with books is not included in a House bill.
The financial roller coaster is an ongoing frustration for state librarian Virginia Lowell.
"The library is usually at the bottom of the feeding list," she said. "Everyone loves the library until it comes to financing and funding it."
The first blow is a 1 percent restriction that all state departments have been ordered to make this year. That will wipe out the library's planned Internet kiosks in remote areas such as Moloka'i's Kalaupapa.
Library supporters also are anxiously watching the budget bill that is moving through the state House. Under the current version, Lowell said there is no money for new books and no money to supply or run the Kapolei library, which is expected to finish the first phase of construction in 2002.
Unless the money is restored in the Senate budget, Kapolei library "will indeed be a building with nothing in it," Lowell said.
Even more serious are the governor's threatened cuts, which he says are necessary to pay for public employee union raises. Under the governor's plan, the library could lose between $1.1 million and $5.6 million in fiscal year 2002. The library's current yearly operating budget is nearly $21 million.
Although she's not sounding the death knell yet, Lowell said the governor's proposed cuts will likely mean staff layoffs and library closures.
Word about the library's bleak future is spreading.
"An empty building would be just horrible," said Kristine Newmann, acting president of the Friends of the Library-Kapolei.
"The population in the area has grown quite a bit over the years, and there are a lot of young families," Newmann said. "The community has been very excited about getting a library here; it's quite a drive to get to a library now."
The library had asked for $1.4 million in operating money and $1 million in capital improvement money to get the library up and running. Without that, there will be no shelving, no circulation desks, no books and no staff, Lowell said.
Rep. Mark Moses said he's been speaking to other lawmakers to try and get the money put back into the budget.
"Isn't it a shame if they build a library and there's no books or staff?" said Moses, R-42nd (Kapolei, 'Ewa Village, Village Park).
"The problem is a little thing called a teachers strike," he added. Pay raises for the teachers, University of Hawai'i faculty and the public workers have become bigger issues.
"That's why they're cutting corners," Moses said.
Meanwhile, Lowell continues to bring lawmakers her message about the need to pay for "core services." It was something of a coup last year when the library won $1.25 million from the Legislature to buy books, but Lowell said a system of Hawai'i's size should be spending about $7.5 million.
"It's sad to have a library that's supposed to be the resource library for the entire system have titles in its collection that have newer editions. and we can't afford to purchase them," she said.
It's been five years since the main library has bought new materials for its foreign language collection, she said.
"The children's collection has also really suffered under the lack of funding," Lowell said, with books only being retired when they fall to pieces.
