Bush Plan Cool to Libraries

Despite his oft-stated commitment to helping children read, President Bush took a miserly approach to libraries in his fiscal 2002 budget. The president's proposal would completely eliminate the $1.4 million in funding for the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), which advises the president and Congress on the nation's libraries. And the budget proposes $168 million, or level funding, for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), which funnels money to public libraries for innovative programs.

As for school libraries, the president would consolidate even more programs under the block grant that helps fund them, Title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Though overall program funding increased, "school libraries were competing with nine things, and now they're competing with 17 things," says Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association's Washington Office.

Earlier this year, Sheketoff testified before Congress in favor of increasing LSTA funding, which she calls "woefully inadequate." But the association's lobbying may be limited on behalf of the national library commission. Though ALA is "very supportive" of the NCLIS mission, says Sheketoff, "we have a lot of subjects we work on and we need to prioritize our time."