National Library Funding Rises a Bit

Congressional funding for library programs for FY05, which began in October, will be $207,760,000, an increase of $9.5 million over FY04, but that was $12.7M below the President's request and $15.8M less than what the Senate approved. Congress funded $162M in State Grants administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services—$4.4M above the previous year but $8.4M below the administration's request. The best-supported program, Librarians for the 21st Century—which supports education, recruiting, and staffing projects—will get the President's request of $23M, a $3M increase.

Native American Library Services will get $3.5M, $300,000 above the previous year but $175,000 less than the President's request. The National Leadership Grants program will get $12.4M, $1.1M above last year but $4.1M below the President's request. However, all figures in the Omnibus Appropriations bill are subject to a .83% cut that was placed on all nondefense and non–homeland security spending.

Also, Congress again expressed its support for the proposal by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to make the research it funds freely available via PubMed Central. Language in the Conference Report for the FY05 Consolidated Appropriations Act directed NIH "to give full and fair consideration to all comments before publishing its final policy."