As with the previous three-year plan, covering 2003-2005, this plan assumes that state funding for public libraries will continue to decrease, as has been the case since 2001. To deal with this reduction, many cuts in staffing and benefits have been made, and a smaller portion of the budget has been devoted to materials purchases. Looking to the future, it seems that there is probably no way to avoid cutting library services next, barring any changes to our current funding system.
While state funding changes will have an immediate and specific effect on our Library, there are also general societal changes that will affect us. We can project, for example, that our society will become increasingly interested in the "entertainment" areas of library service. There is a growing gap between the books and films which have big promotional budgets (and are thus in high demand) and information that is produced by and distributed to smaller and more specialized markets, quite often over the Internet. Public libraries will notice increased demand for big-budget "entertainment" information while finding it more difficult to collect "hard" information for specific needs. Thus public libraries can expect to deal with shifts in the demand for their services and materials while simultaneously dealing with reduced funding.
Guided by this vision of the future, the Board of Trustees and the library managers have developed this plan by identifying what services are expected of a modern public library, which of those services are most important, and what resources are needed to provide the services. This will allow the Board to make informed decisions regarding reductions in service if such reductions become necessary.
Finally, this plan also discusses some options for increasing revenue from sources other than state funding, should the Library decide to actively seek to offset budget cuts.