NCLfall.03pt.1


PB — FALL  2003                                                                                                                                                  North Carolina Libraries86

Plummer Alston “Al” Jones, Jr., Editor

From the Editor

Are Libraries Getting
Their Fair Share of the

Federal Budget?

s I grow older and hopefully wiser, I have begun to question whether libraries
are now or ever have been getting their fair share of the federal budget.
Astounding as it may sound, the United States was 180 years old, just twenty
years away from its Bicentennial, before the U.S. Congress passed the first
law establishing federal funds for libraries in 1956.

The Library Services Act (LSA) passed that momentous year was targeted toward
improving rural library service. In 1964, the LSA was broadened to the Library Services
and Construction Act (LSCA), which provided funds for urban as well as rural public
libraries and for library construction. Most recently in 1996, the LSCA was replaced
with the Library Technology and Services Act (LSTA), which provides funds for en-

hancing the electronic capabilities of public, school, and
academic libraries, including among other technology-related
projects, the ability to share digitized resources via the World
Wide Web; to ensure equity of access; and to help bring
resources to underserved audiences. LSTA funds are distrib-
uted by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services
(IMLS) to the state agency responsible for libraries and library
services in each of the fifty states. In North Carolina, the State
Library of North Carolina receives LSTA funds and redistributes
them through a variety of grant programs to individual
libraries, library systems, and consortia to implement local and
statewide library programs and projects.

I recently asked Penny Hornsby, Consultant for Federal
Programs at the State Library of North Carolina, for LSTA
figures for North Carolina as a percentage of total funds
available nationally. For fiscal year 2003, for example, the total
LSTA appropriation for the nation was $187,868,160. Of this
sum, $150,435,000, or 80.07% was earmarked for state
library programs. The difference in the two figures,
$3,743,3160, or 19.93%, represents funding for Native

American Grants, National Leadership Grants, and IMLS Administration. North
Carolina’s share of the 2003 LSTA funds for state library programs was $4,104,012,
which represents 2.18% of total LSTA program funds and 2.73% of LSTA funds
earmarked for state library programs.

All of this sounds very impressive, at least it did to me, until recent reports were
released that the U.S. government is spending one billion (that’s nine zeros) dollars to
fund a week of nation-rebuilding in Iraq. While $1billion is being spent internationally
for activities in Iraq that will have no direct benefit domestically, libraries throughout
the United States in one fiscal year will receive approximately 15 percent of $1 billion,
or $150.5 million for LSTA state program funding. This amount is to provide library
service to approximately 285 million Americans, based on a 2001 estimate, many of
whom are still without adequate library service, including immigrants, African Ameri-
cans, and Native Americans. Of 285 million Americans, approximately 8 million are
North Carolinians.

Are libraries getting their fair share of federal funds? Are library services adequate
in your community? Are all segments of the population receiving equal access to
libraries? These questions are definitely interrelated.

A