State legislators' recently enacted budget cuts that included funding to libraries statewide and will result in program and resource cuts for libraries in the Butler County Federated Library System.

The BCFLS operates libraries in Butler, Cranberry, Evans City, Mars, Prospect, Saxonburg, Slippery Rock and Zelienople, as well as North Trails, home to the Bookmobile, which services Bruin and Chicora.

In its budget passed last week, the state cut public library subsidies by 20.1 percent, representing, for the BCFLS, a drop from $762,000 in 2009 to about $600,000 in 2010.

However, because the library system's fiscal year runs from January to December, many of the changes will not take place until after January, as funding for its initiatives this year was allocated in the 2009 budget.

The administrator for the county library system says she doesn't like the cuts, but realizes things could be worse.

"If there had not been an outcry from library users, we probably would have lost more," Sheila Brown said.

Defeated budgets presented by the state House of Representatives and Senate proposed trimming between 5 percent and 53 percent of library funding.

"Many of the libraries receive money from local organizations or their municipalities, but about 50 percent of their funding comes from the state. For the county system as a whole, the state provides 80 percent of our funding," Brown said.

Most of that money goes into database subscriptions.

Likely to disappear from the library system's databases are Reference USA, which provides business information, and Heritage Quest, used for genealogical study.

NextReads, a database allowing users access to online newsletters providing book suggestions, new releases and news about 26 different literary genres, could be spared.

"Because it's the least expensive, we're hoping to save it, but we will likely lose the others," Brown said.

Downloadable audio books, available on the BCFLS Web site, will probably go away.

"We are negotiating with our providers to see what, if anything, we can save," Brown said.

The library provides outreach services to the northern part of Butler County with libraries like Northern Trails and Slippery Rock, as well as through the Bookmobile, which Brown said is a vital service because the cable provider north of Moniteau High School does not provide Internet, leaving the school and the library as the only places to access broadband Internet.

"We are going to have to cut back on the time the Bookmobile is out, as well as the hours for our part-time staff," Brown said.

Five part-time employees currently serve the library, but that number will drop to just three.

"The money going to libraries is such a small, small percentage of the state budget, but was cut by 20 percent. Most other programs suffered losses of 10 percent or less," Brown said.

Hardest-hit in the budget was the Electronic Library Catalog, which legislators eliminated funding to after allocating $3.5 million statewide in 2009.

The catalog lets library users search for materials at any library in the state, should their location not carry what they are searching for.

Elimination of the system means users will have their materials selection drastically reduced.

At the state level, Brown said an effort is being made to save the POWER Library databases which grant access to periodical archives across Pennsylvania.

POWER Library, statewide card recognition and interlibrary delivery funding dropped from $7 million in 2009 to $3 million in the state's 2010 budget.

Statewide card recognition allows those with a library card to borrow books from any interconnected library in the state without paying a nonresident fee, and return the book to any library.

The Butler Public Library would be particularly affected because it is the largest library in the BCFLS and hosts the most nonresident users, Brown said.

Interlibrary delivery allows shipment of materials between libraries to those who have requested them.

POWER Library is an index of articles from various periodicals covering "everything from car care to health issues," Brown said.

The POWER Library's periodical database gets more traffic than any other, and would be the hardest to replace due to the shift during the past 20 years to index all of the articles online.

"Most libraries have no way to index all of those articles in-house," Brown said.

The three library access programs mentioned above are affected immediately, because the state's reimbursement for those programs is made in payments, one in February and one in August, both of which had been figured into the 2009 BCFLS budget.

The second payment of $40,000 never arrived.

While the state provides the bulk of BCFLS funding, Butler County supports a significant part as well.

The Butler County commissioners established BCFLS in 1987, and funding from the county grew annually during the next decade, but has remained steady at $238,000 each year since.

The county appropriation, however, is considered a donation, not a budgeted line item.

"We are hoping we will be able to get that same amount next year," Brown said.

The county budget will be passed in December.

Randy Fox, director of development for the Butler Public Library, echoed Brown's sentiment that legislators perceive libraries as a luxury, not a necessity.

"In these economic times, libraries are busier than ever. We act as an emergency room to the unemployed, those looking for work or services," Fox said.

Many employers require prospective employees to apply or take prehire questionnaires online, unemployment benefits must be filed for online and some people without health insurance use the library as a place to self-diagnose.

"It breaks your heart to see it," Fox said.

The Butler Public Library welcomes more than 600 people through its doors each day, a number that has increased even as the economy shows signs of recovery.

Cuts in the state budget could devastate the library's ability to provide children's programming, free computer terminal use and GED preparatory classes, Fox said.

Stuffing hundreds of envelopes advertising the Butler Public Library's Second Century fundraising campaign, Fox realizes the dire need for donors.

"It's not as if this money is going to come back, in one year or five years. It's gone," he said.

BCFLS has been told by the state Division of Library Improvement to continue business as usual until told otherwise, or at least until January, when most of the program cuts are likely to take place.

The Division of Library Improvement is part of the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, which is controlled by the state Department of Education.

To donate to BCFLS, visit its Web site at www.bcfls.org.