Proposed Funding Cuts Could Reduce Access To Hawaiʻi Libraries

The Hawaiʻi State Public Library System is poised to lose nearly 25 staff positions and $27 million in funding for the maintenance and construction of its facilities, according to the most recent version of the state budget that lawmakers are considering.

The proposed cuts would put the system under greater strain to serve the public after many of its branches have struggled to fill staff vacancies and operated with reduced hours since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last fall, State Librarian Stacey Aldrich requested an operating budget of roughly $50 million to support 51 branches and more than 500 employees across Hawaiʻi. The current version of the budget would cut nearly $1.4 million in funds by eliminating 24 full-time and one half-time positions, many of which are librarians or library assistants and technicians. 

Lawmakers are still debating the specifics of the state budget and a conference committee is set to meet again on Monday afternoon.

Of the 25 positions subject to cuts, two are currently filled, Mallory Fujitani, special assistant in the Office of the State Librarian, said in an emailed statement. The library has struggled with staffing since the Covid-19 pandemic, largely because the system faced a hiring freeze in 2020 and didn’t have the funding to fill vacancies until last year.

In a 2023 survey of library employees, nearly 30% said the state needed to hire more staff to provide better services to the public.

If the positions are eliminated, rural and neighbor island communities could feel the greatest impacts, said Nainoa Mau, executive director of Friends of the Library of Hawaiʻi. Currently, he said, the system tries to shift staff members between branches if libraries are short on employees, but it can be a challenge in smaller communities.

Mau added that he’s worried that libraries will never return to their original levels of staffing once their positions are cut. On Maui, the Hana library is currently closed three days a week, and the Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi libraries are both closed throughout the weekends.

“In some communities, particularly rural, neighbor island communities, the public library is the only place with internet connectivity,” Aldrich wrote in her budget presentation to the Board of Education last fall. “Our public libraries are the equalizer.”

Rep. Amy Perruso said cutting state libraries’ funding hurts civic engagement and limits people’s access to high-quality reading materials. Support for libraries has been on the decline for years, Perruso added, pointing to the shrinking number of qualified librarians in public schools over the last decade.  

“When we cut our libraries, we’re really gutting our communities’ access to their full humanity,” Perruso said.

The library’s original budget request also included $25 million per year for construction projects relating to health and safety, as well as $2 million for the planning and design of the Kapaʻa Public Library on Kauaʻi. The library sits in a tsunami zone, and the state is planning to relocate the branch further inland.

But the current version of the budget has no funds for rebuilding the Kapaʻa library and provides no money for construction projects in the 2027 fiscal year.

The requested funding would support more than 40 projects such as reroofing libraries and upgrading their electrical systems, Fujitani said. Roughly 60% of the library system’s buildings are over 50 years old.

“Not having enough funding already available to address potential issues could force projects to stop in mid-stream and open the State up to escalation costs,” Fujitani said in a recent letter to Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Donovan Dela Cruz.  

In Dela Cruz’s district in Wahiawā, the local library is planning to close next month but will be rebuilt and upgraded as part of the $42 million Wahiawā Center for Workforce Excellence, expected to open in 2027.

The proposed cuts to funding also come as President Donald Trump reduces federal support for libraries nationwide.

An executive order signed last month aims to cut funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, although two lawsuits have challenged the directive from the presidential administration. Last year, the institute awarded more than $3.2 million in grants to Hawaiʻi museums and libraries, including $1.5 million to the state library system. 

Federal funds have allowed the state library to purchase online courses for its patrons and offer training and assessments measuring users’ digital literacy skills, according to the institute’s website. In a five-year plan Aldrich submitted to the agency in 2022, she said she hoped to use federal funding to upgrade libraries’ technology, expand their collection of e-books and provide more training to staff.

Now, the future of federal funding remains unclear. Nearly all of the agency staff responsible for releasing funding to states were placed on administrative leave last month, and states are bracing themselves for funding running dry, Mau said.

Mau said he only expects public demand for libraries to grow in the coming months as communities face greater economic hardships and seek out safe places with reliable information.

“In times of need,” Mau said, “people are going to rely on their libraries more.”

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.