‘There was no advance warning’ librarians say after agency informed them of cutback three weeks ago
A state agency that’s been awarding grants annually to Alaska libraries has sharply cut one of this year’s stipends. And that has created budget problems for smaller, rural libraries that depend on the grants.
Tok Librarian Kathy Morgan says she was surprised when she got an email three weeks ago informing her that the state Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums has cut this year’s Public Library Assistance grant by nearly 75 percent.
“There was no advance warning,” she said. “We were told in the spring to apply for the grant. There was no mention that there might be a change in the grant amount.”
Morgan says the annual grant has amounted to about $7,000 in recent years. And it accounts for about a third of the library’s approximately $20,000 budget. So she was counting on the stipend.
“We use the money from the grant to buy books and pay for heat and lights,” she said, “so, I've already spent more money than I should have, counting on that $7,000.”
Delta Junction Community Library Director Tiki Levinson says she, too, was surprised when she was informed that the grant had been downsized in an Aug. 16th email from division Director Amy Phillips-Chan.
“And there was no information prior to this to any of the libraries that I'm aware of that this amount was going to be reduced by this extreme level,” Levinson said. “And there was no opportunity to comment on it.”
Phillips-Chan wrote in the email that libraries got less this year because “Funding available for the grant program is currently subject to increased expenditures and/or budget shortfalls within the annual operating budget for the Division.”
She said the agency had budgeted $150,000 for the grants this year, and that 82 public libraries were eligible, so each would be awarded $1,826. She added the division is trying to restore the grant to its previous amount.
Phillips-Chan on Thursday referred followup questions about the grant to the state Department of Education and Early Development, which the Libraries, Archives and Museums Division is part of. But neither agency responded to the queries on Friday.
Levinson said the smaller grant will likely require cuts in the Delta library’s programs.
“We're currently looking at trying to cut back or revising somehow how we do our children's programming, said Thursday.
She said the Delta library’s annual budget last year was $293,000. She added it’s already had to absorb the loss of two other grants in recent years: one for $14,000 that Fort Greely had been awarding annually until 2019 and $5,000 that military contractor Boeing discontinued last year.
“We’re talking about do we need to reduce hours?” Levinson said. “What do we need to do to save money so that we can stay within our budget and still remain viable in the community?”
She says that’ll be difficult to do nearly two months into the new fiscal year. But she says the impact of the cut will be a lot tougher for smaller libraries, like Tok’s. And Morgan agrees.
“Our library is operated entirely on a volunteer basis,” she said, “and we use the money from the grant to buy books and pay for heat and lights. So yeah, I’m just going to cut back on the money we use to buy materials for people to check out, Internet access.”
Morgan says the library board will have to pull money from an account set up to save money to for a new building so they could move out of the cramped log structure it now shares with the visitors center.
“We have a little reserve of savings from previous years,” she said Thursday, “and if we have to, we can dip into that.”
She says if she’d known the grant was so small, she wouldn’t have budgeted 400 dollars this year to buy new chairs for library.
“But it’s too late. We've got beautiful new chairs that we'll enjoy.”
Editor's note: This story has been revised and updated.
