Seventy percent of Idaho’s 143 public libraries are the only source of free interstate access in their communities, Idaho Commission for Libraries Director Ann Joslin told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this morning. “In Idaho, residential broadband continues to lag the national average,” she said. “Our public libraries play a very significant role in filling that gap.”

Currently, no state funds go into providing internet service at libraries; Joslin proposed that the state kick in $200,000 next year to help with libraries' costs. About two-thirds of Idaho's libraries get federal “e-rate” funds for library broadband service; those funds, from a telephone service fee, cover three-quarters of the cost of the service for the libraries, while local property taxpayers pick up the balance. In the other third of Idaho's libraries, local funds cover the full cost. Gov. Butch Otter, however, didn’t recommend any state funding for the request next year.

Libraries are busy these days, Joslin reported. “Circulation of library materials is the highest ever recorded.” In Idaho, circulation of library materials per capita rose 21.2 percent from 2008 to 2012; on a per-capita basis, it was up 15.3 percent.

She also touted the commission’s 17-year-old, highly successful “Read to Me” program, which provides books and help to encourage parents of young children to read to them. That and other early literacy efforts are key, she said. “Research shows that the most important predictor of school success and high school graduation is grade-level reading by the third grade. Our Read to Me program helps level the playing field,” so any family, regardless of its resources, can “raise proficient readers.”

The Read to Me program has included mini-grants to local elementary school libraries to purchase books for kids to check out, but grant applications are far outstripping the funds. “Research shows that when kids have access to books, they read them,” Joslin said. “Most school districts have inadequate or non-existent budgets to provide quality books to their students to either read at school or take home.” Sixty percent of Idaho school districts have book budgets of less than $1,000 a year, she said; 28 percent have less than $100 a year. The Commission for Libraries proposed doubling the budget for those mini-grants next year from the current $100,000 to $200,000, but again, Otter didn’t recommend funding.

Joslin also highlighted the commission’s “Routes to Reading” program, a grant-funded effort that’s providing bins full of high-quality books, along with tips for parents, to 58 libraries this year to distribute to local day-care centers; more than 7,000 Idaho children have benefited from the program so far. “Routes to Reading” was recently highlighted by the national Institute of Museum and Library Services as a “success spotlight.”

Plus, Idaho library summer reading programs are proving increasingly popular, reaching more than 95,000 children in 2013, a number that’s been rising steadily over the years and was just over 21,000 in 2001. “We are approaching 100,000 Idaho kids who keep reading over the summer, minimizing or eliminating the summer slide in reading skills by using libraries,” Joslin told lawmakers.

The Commission for Libraries requested a 6.4 percent increase in state funding for next year; Otter recommended 5.4 percent. That’s largely due to increased benefit costs, $26,000 in replacement items, and the governor’s recommendation to grant a $110,000 request for software licensing for programs libraries provide for workforce and career development, digital literacy, K-16 education, informal education and training and college and career readiness.

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