Thursday, February 8, 2018

IMLS Report: State Library Funding Still Suffering :: California :: Last - $1.05 per capita


IMLS Report: State Library Funding Still Suffering
Library Journal: 1.23.2018 by Lisa Peet

State Library Administrative Agencies (SLAA) across the country have largely still not recovered from the major decreases in revenue and staffing they experienced during the economic recession, according to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) biennial State Library Administrative Agencies (SLAA) Survey, conducted in FY16.

California :: Long-Term Decline

“The SLAA report shows how many of the nation’s libraries continue to be financially challenged by the effects of the recession as they strive to maintain valued community services,” IMLS director Kathryn K. Matthew told LJ.

The report, the eighth such cooperative effort of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), IMLS, and American Institutes for Research, offers a look at long-term trends across the country, as well as contrasting the ways that different agencies have responded to decreases in funding as their public-facing work has grown. It tracks three sets of indicators: revenues and expenditures; workforce; and services provided.

Over the past 12 years SLAA revenues declined by over a fifth, with expenditures falling by 22 percent, according to the report. SLAAs rebounded slightly in 2014 but that didn’t last—as of FY16, both metrics are at their lowest levels since 2004. Revenues and expenditures of funds through the Library Services Technology Act (LSTA) decreased by 20 percent from 2004­–16.

In FY16, SLAA revenues totaled more than $1 billion across federal, state, and other revenue sources; 82 percent from states and 15 percent from federal sources. Expenditures came in at only slightly less, with two-thirds spent on financial assistance to libraries and a third going to operations.  READ MORE >>

California :: Last @ $1.05 per capita


No comments: