The effects of the budget cuts are already beginning to be felt in the land of Pennsylvania libraries.
The district library announced that it would no longer be sponsoring "Heritage Quest", a database that it provided to all the libraries in the district. Heritage Quest was a wonderful tool, much used by patrons of The Green Free Library for genealogical research. Through it, one could access federal census records for not just Tioga County, but the entire United States. The link has already been removed and all users will be unhappy to see it go.
The hatchet has also fallen on the rotating collection of DVDs that travel throughout the district, changing every two months to provide around 30 current and classic DVDs to libraries that are not able to purchase them. We will have one more rotation in the library for December/January, then no more.
Also, the State, in its infinite wisdom, will no longer be supporting the Millennium System that we and several other Pennsylvania libraries use for cataloging and circulation. What does this mean? It means in an already precarious financial position for the upcoming year, all of these libraries will have to come up with several thousand dollars to purchase a new system for cataloging and circulation. Thanks so much for that Pennsylvania!
What can I say? It's only downhill from here.
But it's not too late to help. The library is still accepting donations for its annual appeal. All donations are tax deductible and a receipt will be provided. Any amount is equally appreciated from $1.00 to $1000. ($100,000 and up would be appreciated a little more LOLJ
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