Late Bulletins

Yet another state is facing a fiscal crunch, though this time the state library isn't taking a disproportionate hit. Ohio Gov. Bob Taft on July 1 announced $375 million in FY03 budget cuts, with most agencies—including the state library—facing 15 percent cuts. The state library must cut more than $1.1 million from its operating budget. State Librarian Mike Lucas told LJ that about 40 percent of that cut would be easy to adjust to, since the library had already made a cut in the previous fiscal year. The additional $706,000 will be a challenge. The library will cut acquisitions to maintenance level, then likely cut positions through retirements, elimination of vacant slots, and layoffs. The state's two libraries for the blind and physically handicapped will lose $306,000, and the seven regional library systems will be cut $289,000. These cuts are separate from the smaller cuts in public library funding (see News , p. 16).

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a suit in Boston federal court to gain permission for researcher Ben Edelman—who testified as a plaintiffs' expert in the successful Children's Internet Protection Act litigation—to uncover the list of sites blocked by the filter company N2H2. The suit claims both a First Amendment right to the information as well as a "fair use" right to "reverse engineer" the software; in doing so, it questions provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. N2H2 considers its list a trade secret but allows users to ask for review of a site considered wrongly blocked. N2H2 is used by a significant number of libraries, 40 percent of public schools, and at least five state governments.

Thanks to lobbying by advocates and support from the New York City Council, the council and Mayor Mike Bloomberg agreed to reduce funding for the three city library systems by five percent, not 15 percent as originally proposed in Bloomberg's budget. The change allows the city's three systems—New York Public Library, Queens Borough Public Library, and Brooklyn Public Library—to maintain six-day-a-week service. The new budget is five percent less than that adopted for FY02, but the emergency ten percent cuts the libraries made after September 11 prepared them for this new budget.

In a scene that is likely to play out in other libraries, law enforcement officials in East Naples, FL, last month seized computers from the Edison Community College library after another patron called in a report of suspicious behavior. According to local reports, three men who appeared to be "of Middle Eastern descent" were seen whispering, using instant messaging, and employing the Internet to access Islamic newspapers and web sites. Investigators analyzed the computers' contents and found nothing of concern.

Though the Washington State Library survived a threatened closure with a small budget cut (see News, LJ 4/15/02 , p. 14), an additional $900,000 was withheld by Gov. Gary Locke and placed in an account under his control designated for emergencies. The cut, from $5.3 million to $4.4 million, forced the library to eliminate 14 positions—about ten percent of the work force—some of which were already vacant. The library is cutting its collection by 200,000 books, donating titles outside the realm of public policy or state history to other libraries.