All in 4 Days Work

It's been a busy week. Due to MLK Day festivities, we have crammed 5 business days into 4. The week has been packed with meetings. There has been staff meetings, Board of Trustees, lunch with donors, job interviews for an open position, and a legislative budget hearing.

Our legislative work began on Tuesday. The State Library presented its budget to the House Ways and Means subcommittee (Chip Limehouse, Lanny Littlejohn, Denny Nielson, and Jim Merrill).

The Association of Public Library Adminstrators presented as well. I was given the opportunity to address the committee on behalf of the State's public libraries. You may click here for a more detailed post on our budget request. It is hard to determine the most important part of our budget request.

One item that is important to all libraries is a request to increase Aid to Public Libraries from $2.00 per capita to $3.00 per capita. The total for this item is $12,119,457 or an increase of $3,929,819. This would also bring the minimum grant up from $50,000 to $60,000 for smaller counties. For Spartanburg County we would realize about $760,000.

Aid to Public Libraries may be used for collection development, staff and programming. Aid is money that goes back into the communities for services to the people. As the legislative season unfolds, we will have to keep libraries in front of our lawmakers. It is going to be a big legislative year. Stay tuned.