The Federal Budget has been in the news a lot recently, but you might have missed one of the possible cuts being proposed. This is funding to the IMLS - Institute of Museums and Library Services. Each year, funds are granted to individual states for library initiatives that will reach every resident. While there are many ways that these funds are distributed within states, New Hampshire chooses to retain the funds at the State Library and use them to provide state-wide services.
You may wonder how that impacts you, and how meaningful this is to you. These services are a bit behind the scenes, but very impactful. These IMLS funds underwrite the state-wide delivery system that moves books around the state to fill requests. Any book that comes to you that isn't part of the GMILCS system, arrives via this delivery. You have access to every book owned in every library in the state. This is particularly valuable for folks who live in very small, underserved communities in NH. Kelley lends a large number of books to a wide spectrum of libraries in the state, sending the items out via this delivery system.
In addition, the EBSCO databases, available to every library in the state, are also underwritten by the IMLS funds. These are a large range of esources with a particular focus on magazine articles. With these esources, you can access virtually any article in almost any magazine, journal, and periodical published in the US. From the comfort of your home. And finally, these funds offset some of the costs of the NH Downloadable Books Consortium. This provides ready access to ebooks and eaudios, accessible from all participating libraries in the state, and accessible from wherever you and your ebook ready device may be.
So if these services are valuable to you, I am sure your federal representatives will be delighted to hear your story. Take a moment to contact them. You will be helping yourself, your family, your neighbors, all of NH and every citizen in the US.
