Coast libraries are preparing for further belt-tightening, following the province's decision to cut 22 per cent of provincial library funding for the 2009/10 year.
"I don't foresee any more reductions in hours and we'll try to continue with our commitments as far as book buying goes. And our programs, we'll try to continue. But it's all more difficult, of course," said Helen Prosser, chief librarian at the Sechelt Public Library. "I guess it's got to give somewhere."
The Sechelt library, she said, will lose $13,000 as a result of the provincial cuts - 33 per cent of what had been $40,000 of the library's total provincial funding. The lion's share of the library's overall funding - approximately 85 per cent, she said - continues to be provided at the municipal level. Recent municipal cuts forced the Sechelt library to cut its hours, scaling back full service on Mondays and Saturdays to two half-days.
The $13,000, she said, comes from the elimination of a $9,000 BC One Card and Literacy grant, and a $4,000 Resource Sharing grant.
The programs won't be cut, she said, but money to fund them will have to be scavenged up from the library's operating budget.
In a press release, Gibsons and District Public Library's chief librarian Michelle Southam also expressed concern for the cuts.
"As of now we don't know just how the reduction in provincial funding will affect our particular library, but we are concerned with some of the items proposed for the cuts," Southam said. "We would hate to see the removal of provincial support for public library access to electronic data bases and to the much used and appreciated InterLINK library resource sharing service. I am sure the public can appreciate that some adjustments will be necessary, but until the province provides us with more detailed information on their proposed cuts, we have no way of knowing just how it might affect our services."
Prosser said that, in working out which grants would be cut, the Public Library Services Branch has tried to protect smaller libraries. In that spirit, she said, some of the larger libraries have forgone sums of their operating money, in order to avert potentially fatal cuts at smaller libraries.
"Overall, it could have been a lot worse," she said, adding she does not foresee any quick solutions to the budget squeeze at the library. "We've been advised to budget very conservatively, because next year will be worse again."
