Iowa’s public libraries squeeze every nickel out of every state dollar

Iowa librarians stress need to maintain funding. (Cedar Rapids Gazette, 3/1/2011)

Excerpt: Iowa’s public libraries “squeeze every nickel out of every dollar” they get from the state Legislature, according to Dale Vande Haar, president of the Iowa Library Association.

“We’re quite good at that,” he said after a recent legislative hearing on a plan to streamline services to libraries. “We just don’t want to have any more dollars taken away because you can only squeeze so many nickels out of a dollar.”

Vande Haar and other librarians around the state realize they’ll have to squeeze harder because the governor’s proposed budget calls for a cut of about $600,000 from the current $3 million state appropriations for the State Library and Library Service Areas.