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Friday, December 20, 2002
Locke plan would all but shut state library
OLYMPIA -- Gov. Gary Locke's budget proposal again targets the Washington State Library -- not for extinction this time, but for staff cuts that could mean an end to public use of the facility.
Last year, the governor proposed eliminating the library, which serves the Legislature, agencies, prisons, local libraries and the public through in-person visits, mail and the Internet.
The Legislature balked, but did trim the budget, ended the library's independent agency status and placed it within the Secretary of State's Office.
This week, Locke proposed eliminating 81 of the library's 114 remaining employees. He said that can be done by ending the major function of providing research and support to state agencies and the Legislature.
State Librarian Jan Walsh said if that happens, the library would have to close its doors to the public because "we simply wouldn't have enough staff to keep the building open."
After being kicked out of the Joel Pritchard Library Building last year to make room for temporary Senate chambers and a public cafeteria, the library operations moved into a leased building several miles south of the capitol campus, on Capitol Boulevard.
Locke's plan is for the library to remain the repository of several state collections, including state and federal documents, the Northwest Collection and other historical papers.
"We would become what I'm calling an elegant warehouse, because the staff would be taken away that would serve the public," Walsh told The Olympian newspaper in comments published yesterday.
She said the savings, about $5 million, would save less than 0.1 percent of the budget shortage that Locke is trying to fix.
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