Michigan Library Co-ops Threatened

By Lynn Blumenstein -- Library Journal, 5/1/2007

All of Michigan’s 13 regional library cooperatives are “very much in trouble,” according to Roger Mendel, director of the Mideastern Michigan Library Cooperative. Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s proposed FY08 budget includes $1 billion in total cuts, with state aid to libraries reduced 50 percent, to $6.1 million. Public libraries also would be affected, said Mendel, but not to the same extent.

Regional systems depend on the state; some cooperatives get as much as 89 percent of their budgets from that source. “It’s still early in the game,” said Mendel. At present, both houses are holding subcommittee hearings. The budget probably won’t be resolved until June, but in its current incarnation it “cuts into the heart of our operation,” he said. The library cooperatives offer interlibrary loan services, continuing education, and discount programs and, in some cases, schedule summer reading performances.