Alaska News

With funding running out, Kotzebue library faces uncertain future

It seems the shoestring is running out for the Chukchi Consortium Library in Kotzebue.

But what that means for the community hot spot exactly is still unclear.

The library is a bustling place in town that over the last year, has been busier than ever with youth programs and after-school activities. It offers a quiet place for the community to read and research, with free wireless Internet access and myriad books, periodicals and DVDs.

And though it has weathered financial setbacks and budget cuts for the past few years, it's uncertain if the library will be able to remain open to the public in the new year.

The library is funded predominantly by the Northwest Arctic Borough and the University of Alaska Chukchi Campus, with other, smaller grants filling in the gaps.

The borough provides the bulk of the funding for the public side of the library, but in Fiscal Year 2014, the borough cut nearly $35,000 from its $133,000 annual contribution. Over the past calendar year, the library has been able to maintain its programs and one full-time staff member due to some carry-over funding from the previous year. But now that's gone.

"Now we don't have any carry-over and $100,000 (from the borough) will essentially run out in February, so that leaves us with no funding to provide staff for the public side of the library or material for kids' programs," said library director Stacey Glaser last week.

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Glaser has been with the library for 20 years, and while she's gone to bat for the library more times than she can remember, she's done fighting, she said. She recently took another job in town and is working at the library in the evenings while transitioning into her new day job.

"I'm eventually going to stop working there altogether but I don't want to do that until I've done everything I can to try and get the funding back," she said.

But it's not just the borough cuts that are threatening the library. Recent cuts to the University of Alaska have trickled down to the Chukchi Campus. A decline in funds from both sources has made staying open an almost impossible task.

Currently, the library is open only a fraction of the time it used to be, with few or no programs available because there is no one to staff the position.

"The library is in a very precarious situation right now," Glaser said. "And it's sad because we just came off of a couple of great, successful years with all of our kids programs."

Robotics labs and building workshops are just a couple of the programs that were offered more recently for students but those are on hold now.

Grants are available -- the library received two Rasmuson Foundation grants earlier this year -- but it can't rely on them as the base of its budget.

Glaser said she's has gone to the city council and to NANA to ask for help but was turned down for funding.

"People in the community are concerned," Glaser said. "Every community this size in Alaska has a public library. If ours were to close, we would be the only community of this size to not have one.

"The library is full of kids from the time school gets out until I leave at 8," Glaser said. "This is an amazing resource."

The library sees about 30,000 visits each year, with more than 1,200 active members.

The borough knows how important the library is, said borough mayor Reggie Joule on Monday, but it is running at a deficit and the money simply is not there.

"We still fund the library at $100,000 and continue that level of funding," Joule said.

The borough is currently running at a $300,000 deficit, Joule said.

"We've had to make reductions in other places but we've left some things harmless and we left the library harmless in this last round so I think that speaks well of the commitment from the assembly," he said.

The initial cut of $33,000 last year came at time when the borough was cutting other important community services like public safety officers and revenue sharing, he said.

"I think that the library does wonderful things and there's no doubt that its impact on the community has certainly been positive, but when we are having to look at additional reductions in our budgets and trying to get to a balanced budget, it means we've got to make some decisions," Joule said.

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Other funding avenues are out there, he added. And while he understands the plight of the library, it shouldn't rely solely on the borough.

"Until we broaden our revenue source, we have to live within the revenues that we do have," Joule said.

Friends of the library will gather this week and attend the next couple of borough assembly meetings, Glaser said. Community feedback has been strong for years and unifying for the sake of the library has happened several times over the last decade when funding has been threatened in the past.

A Kotzebue without a library is bleak, Glaser said. And, cuts or no cuts, the library is one asset that should be left alone.

"It's so obvious to me," she said. "I don't even know how to talk about it. I don't understand why the funders just don't get it. It's a small amount of money but it's all about priorities."

This story first appeared in The Arctic Sounder and is republished here with permission.

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