Hawaii's Public Library Faces Steep Cuts

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By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 03/03/2010

As if a tsunami warning wasn’t enough, Hawaii is facing another kind of disaster as its public library looks at steep cuts that may require librarians to be furloughed for nearly a month next year.

Hawaii State Library

“Hawaii’s entire economy is very bad,” says state librarian Richard Burns. “But this is creating a huge burden on our staff. And we’re at the end of our ropes.”

The Hawaii State Public Library System has watched its entire budget slashed over the past few years from $32 million in 2008 to $26 million for 2010, expecting to drop to $24.7 million for 2011. Burns says the library has already had to cut its appropriations budget—relying now just on fines and fees to purchase new materials, which brings in about $2 million a year, down from the $5 to $6 million in years past.

In addition, librarians have had no ability to hire substitutes when sick, occasionally leaving some of its 51 statewide branches, including one of the original Carnegie libraries, closed without notice.

Friends of the Library book sale in 2009.

Burns says the library may also have to force librarians to take 24 furloughed days a year—up from the 15 it had hoped to enforce. At least, says Burns, the library has tried to coordinate its days with those days the public schools have now had to enforce on teachers so that parents have some place to bring children when schools are closed.

“We’re now starting to hear from people realizing the library is threatened,” says Byrde Cestare, executive director of Hawaii’s Friends of the Library. “But unfortunately it takes a situation like this to get a response. We can’t take our library for granted.”

But there are some bright signs. The library recently received a two-year $580,000 matching grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to upgrade its computers and other peripherals, including printers.

And two programs being run by the Friends group and the library have brought in about $276,000 from donations by locals, including the "Keep the Doors Open" campaign, which asks for $3 from each state resident. Still, it’s unlikely to make up the difference, even with Burns looking at additional grants and asking publishers to offer them more discounts on new materials.

“What we need is some consumer confidence,” says Burns. “Then tourists will take the trip to Hawaii and spend money, and our economy will improve, and tax revenue will recover. But [the library] is several dominoes down the line.”