Va-Hist, Va-Roots, Other Friends:

Since the news of the consequences of the state budget cuts on the programs
and services of the Library of Virginia was made public, subscribers to
Va-Hist and Va-Roots have been very gracious in their compliments to the
Library and its staff members for the services we have tried to provide.
Some subscribers have gone off the list to send private messages, which are
also very much appreciated.

Alas, we are far past the point of being able to do anything about this
circumstance except pick up the remaining pieces and hope that we can hold
them together.

This is my personal opinion, not to be confused with any official
explanation:

The state's entire budget has been in a serious crisis for more than two
years. Remember the 2001 General Assembly session that failed to resolve the
problem then? Well, after the recession began and as it worsened, things got
even worse. For the last couple of years it has looked to me as if the
Library was already operating at or perhaps even below a sustainable minimum
budget. Many critical staff positions remained vacant for want to money to
pay a salary. Many of our staff members worked long and unpaid extra hours
to keep serving our many constituencies, among whom historians and
genealogists are but a few. So much had already been cut out, including
almost all routine operating funds, that when another round of big cuts came
there was nothing left to cut but staff and programs.

I cried more this week than in the whole preceding 50 years together as
excellent projects and plans and colleagues and friends all around me fell
one after another to the consequences of the arithmetic.

We are all gratified by the kind words, and we certainly understand the
frustration, but I cannot see that anything can be undone unless somebody
brings us a good many millions of dollars this weekend and promises to
repeat the gift every subsequent year.

The many valuable resources available through the Library of Virgnia's web
site will remain on line, including the extraordinary Digital Library
Project images, as Elizabeth Roderick pointed out in a message yesterday.
But please be patient and keep in mind that everything at the Library has
been affected, and response time to requests of all kinds (telephone,
e-mail, real mail, in person) will no doubt be slower because there will be
fewer people and resources to do the work.

$0.02 worth of private opinion from

Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
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