If state libraries are forced to trim their budgets by 15 percent because of declining tax revenue, five to six branches would close, hours would be curtailed, staff reduced and new book purchases slashed.

"A 15 percent cut would severely cripple the library system to the point where it not only becomes inefficient, but also ineffective," said Donna Ikeda, chairwoman of the state Board of Education.

Gov. Linda Lingle has asked all state agencies to come up with 10 percent, 15 percent and 20 percent budget cut scenarios for their 2009-11 discretionary budget because the state's slowing economy has eroded tax revenue.

The state Board of Education's Public Libraries Committee yesterday refused to send a 15 percent budget cut scenario to the governor for her consideration, saying it was too drastic.

Instead, the committee gave preliminary approval to a $2.6 million budget reduction — or 10 percent — that would freeze vacant positions and cut the budget for new materials while keeping libraries open.

"At this point, we can offer as our best offer a 10 percent cut," Ikeda said. "Anything above that can be taken by the governor. At that point, she can give us the rationale" for closing libraries.

Prior to the decision by the committee, State Librarian Richard Burns outlined a dramatic budget cut scenario that would reduce hours of operation across the state, while also closing five to six libraries.

Under a $4.5 million budget reduction — or about 15 percent of the library system's budget — some 20 positions would have to be eliminated across the state, Burns said.

He did not specify which libraries would be affected if the system were forced to make those cuts.

"We won't need to close any libraries under a 10 percent (budget reduction) scenario," he said following the meeting.

But the budget reduction would include $1.8 million in cuts to the library's book and material budget. That would mean book selectors at each library will be unable to purchase new titles to keep library collections "current and valid."

BUDGET ALREADY LEAN

Already the library system's budget is at $28.3 million, a 6.9 percent reduction compared with 2007-08.

That's because the public library system recently reduced its operating budget by 4 percent — or $1.2 million — to meet previous budget restrictions imposed by the governor. Those reductions were on top of nearly $1 million in cuts made by lawmakers this past legislative session.

The amount may appear small compared with cuts by other state agencies, but the blow was substantial to the public library system, which has a lean budget of slightly more than $30 million a year, library officials said.

Most of the budget savings would come from freezing vacant positions within the library system and also reducing the use of temporary employees, said Keith Fujio, administrative services officer for the libraries.

But savings also would come from retirements that are expected over the next year or two, he said.

A large portion of the library workforce is at retirement age, meaning the library may be unable to fill those vacancies once librarians begin to retire.

About 204 employees, or about 35 percent, are 55 years or older, meaning retirements can happen at any time, Fujio said.

"We have a fair idea of how many people might be retiring over the next year. So that will result in a savings," he said.

But some libraries are already short-staffed, so if retirements reduce library staff to one or two employees, they may need to close intermittently, he said.

"A lot of rural libraries have very small staffs," Fujio said.

For the past several years, Burns said the library system has been working to recover from severe staff shortages that occurred during budget reductions in 1995 and then again in 2003.

The library system's staffing problems have improved since the high of 135 vacancies in August 2004. The current staff of 555 is about 10 percent below the 1995 levels.

Likewise, the system has been working for the past five years to recover from a cut of 200 public service hours. Burns said about half those hours were reinstated, but it has been difficult with the shortage in staffing and steady pace of retirements by librarians.

If current staffing levels are reduced any further, it will likely mean a cut to library programs, including story times, teen programs, author meet-and-greets and other community outreach.