The Slippery Rock Community Library shared its story with Eagle readers Monday.

The quest to raise 75% of its funding while facing all the challenges of a troubled economy and the effects of several years of pandemic restriction is only part of the tale.

The library, founded in 2006, serves residents of Worth, Slippery Rock, Mercer and Brady townships and the boroughs of Slippery Rock and Harrisville. With widespread community support, it constructed a 2,240 square-foot building on North Main Street and opened those doors in 2018. Twenty-five percent of its budget comes from those municipalities.

Like other public libraries in Butler County — and there are nine — it lends out books, periodicals and DVDs on site for free. Patrons can use the four public access computers, join a club or class or participate in summer reading programs.

But unlike the seven state-sanctioned members of the Butler County Federated Library System, Slippery Rock Community Library, recognized as an independent library within the federated system, is not allowed to receive any of the state aid offered to the 456 denoted public libraries in Pennsylvania.

Members of the county federated system — Butler Area, Cranberry, Evans City, Mars, Zelienople, South Butler and Prospect libraries — formed in 1987 and its libraries are sanctioned by the state. North Trails Library, which started as the county bookmobile driving to stops in northern Butler County until 2011, is still considered an extension of the federation, an official branch.

To its credit, the federated system lends its support to Slippery Rock and North Trails by sharing the county database of 400,000 titles and the technology and career system.

“The federated system has been good to Slippery Rock,” Karen Pierce, former director of the Slippery Rock library, told the Eagle.

The distribution of state aid, however, must follow a formula from the Department of Education’s Office of Commonwealth Libraries and the federated system bylaws.

The bottom line is a library can’t be considered for state aid unless its application for support is accepted by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, which hasn’t entertained applications for nearly 10 years.

“You can only apply when they open the door,” Kathy Kline, North Trails librarian, told the Eagle. “And I can’t tell you the last time they did accept applications.”

Lori Hinderliter, former federated system administrator, said aid from the state has remained the same for a decade too.

That should all change with the recently passed state budget. Funding for the state’s sanctioned public libraries is set to increase by $11 million — with $70.5 million being disbursed.

With the influx of additional funds, will the Office of Commonwealth Libraries see fit to open applications? We hope so.

Libraries such as Slippery Rock, which has served and been supported by the community for 16 years, also deserve the opportunity to receive state support.

— DJS