INDReporter

Libraries brace for cuts

by Walter Pierce

Because all that book learnin' never did nobody no good anyway.

Nearly $900,000 in state funding to help libraries buy new books, maintain and upgrade technology and pay for Internet service was eliminated from the $25.6 billion budget passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne called the funding reduction "a huge blow to every public library in the state" in an interview the The Advocate, although a co-director of the large East Baton Rouge Parish library system suggests the cut will not have a substantial impact on her system's services. But the associate library director for Ascension Parish predicts the cuts will have the most negative impact on small, rural libraries. Dardenne predicts libraries across the state will absorb the cut by reducing expenses on services like Internet access.

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