Thompson writes:
"There is another cut in Gov. Rendell's proposed budget for 2009-10 that is starting to get a lot of notice: a 50 percent cut in funding for the State Library.
"The governor's proposed budget takes the library's funding from $4.8 million this year to $2.3 million for the budget year starting July 1. Fifty-one of the 57 jobs would be eliminated, with one person transferred elsewhere in the state Department of Education.
"That would leave a staff of six, presumably to maintain the existing stacks and keep some sort of public access to the facility.
"'The tough times we're in now mean we will need to fundamentally rethink the role of the State Library,' Education spokesman Mike Race said.
"'That said, there clearly are assets and services we want to preserve, including hours of operation in which the library is open to public use. (But) until a budget is finalized, we can't speculate on exactly how services might be impacted.'"
This version of the story garnered many comments (some much less helpful than others). The PDE press office spokesman seems to be soft-peddling the furlough. At this point, nobody in the Library has heard anything different from what we were told on February 4th.
A longer version of the story appeared in print the next morning.
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