The biggest impact of the $15 billion in federal cuts faced by the state of Oregon will fall on food assistance and medicaid. But these cuts will also affect the State Library of Oregon, who could lose 25% of its budget. The state library is responsible for providing accessible reading materials for people with disabilities and helping provide guidance and support for local, academic and public school libraries. Wendy Cornelisen is the state librarian. She joins us to share more on what federal cuts to the department would mean for Oregonians.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. The Oregon governor’s office announced this week that the state will likely lose more than $15 billion in federal funding for health care, food assistance, and many other services because of the president’s huge policy and tax bill. The Oregon State Library is on that list. In fact, it’s expecting to lose an enormous chunk of its annual budget, roughly 25% of its money. Wendy Cornelisen is a state librarian. She joins us now. It’s great to have you on Think Out Loud.
Cornelisen: Thank you. Happy to be here.
Miller: What is the state library?
Cornelisen: The State Library of Oregon is a state agency. We’re in the executive branch, and I like to describe us as two libraries and a consulting firm. So, we run the library for the talking book and braille services for print disabled Oregonians. We run a government services library for the legislature and state employees to have access to the best possible information. And we also have a library support division that works with all of the libraries across the state, and there are over 1,600 libraries in Oregon.
Miller: Two libraries and a consulting firm reminds me of that line about the federal government that it is an insurance company with an army. The consulting firm part, what kinds of consulting or services do you provide to those 1,600 libraries?
Cornelisen: The library support division at the state library is a small but mighty team of 10 people who work and coordinate a wide variety of projects really to make sure that libraries in Oregon have the resources and support they need. It’s almost like being a library for those other libraries. They really help answer questions on so many different topics for the libraries in Oregon including questions about youth services, questions from school libraries, questions from library board members as well. And really just give them access to all the best information we can.
Miller: And is that mainly kind of library-to-library conversations, or if you go to a library in Burns, say, or in Medford as a patron, is your experience in that library directly connected to the work that’s happening from your office in Salem?
Cornelisen: It is, actually. There are several services that are paid for by the state library with these federal dollars that are then available to everyone in Oregon and being able to provide digital access to resources, no matter what your zip code is is another important component of how the state library uses these federal funds.
Miller: What’s an example of the digital access that is provided at the state level as opposed to each individual library or library district buying it themselves?
Cornelisen: The best example I have of that are the online databases, the online access to journal articles, magazines and homework help resources that really help anyone in Oregon get connected to high quality information resources. A lot of those resources would normally be hidden behind a paywall, but because the state library has already paid for every library in Oregon to have access to these resources, we’re saving money at the local level, and we’re able to overall pay a lesser price because we’re doing it at scale.
Miller: Oh, so you can pay for everybody, and it costs less than if everybody were paying separately.
Cornelisen: Exactly.
Miller: What kinds of services do you provide to schools?
Cornelisen: The state library on staff has a school library consultant and her name is Jen. Jen provides a wide variety of resources to the school library staff members. A lot of it is that one-on-one support, and it can be lonely working in a school library. You’re often the only person in your building who has that role, that job to do. You might be the only person in the district doing that work of running a library. And so when you have questions to ask, it can be hard to figure out who to ask them of. Here in Oregon, folks can call the state library and connect with that school library consultant to get their questions answered.
Miller: Can you tell us about the courier system?
Cornelisen: In Eastern Oregon, there is a courier system utilized by the libraries of Eastern Oregon, or LEO. It’s called Sage, which is the best name possible for a courier system in eastern Oregon. It actually runs between public libraries, school libraries, academic libraries and a couple community college spots too. The state library covers half the cost of that courier, and the local libraries pay the rest of the cost for the courier system.
Miller: How much of everything you’ve just outlined: services to schools, the Sage courier system for Eastern Oregon, the access to digital services that you essentially buy in bulk and can make available to libraries across the state, in addition to the kind of consulting work. How much of all of those different programs are specifically paid for with federal funds?
Cornelisen: All of the programs that I’ve talked about are paid for with federal dollars.
Miller: Because as I mentioned earlier, federal funds pay for about a quarter of your overall budget, but all the things that we’ve just talked about. So, the rest of three-quarters goes to other services?
Cornelisen: The remainder of the state library’s budget – that other 75% – pays for the talking book and braille service. It pays for the government information library and the operations of the library in general. That library support division – about 60% of their funding – are these federal dollars.
Miller: When would the money that we’re talking about actually run out?
Cornelisen: The federal funds that we’re spending right now are dollars that were granted in fiscal year 2025 and we spend them in the second year of the grant. So these dollars will expire June 30th of 2026.
Miller: And then at this point, and we’re talking in the middle of August, what do you envision is going to happen on July 1st of next year?
Cornelisen: Well, if things stay on the same track, on July 1st of 2026 there will no longer be the same level of digital access to resources at local libraries. And that means there won’t be the same level of homework help. There won’t be the same level of workforce development resources and that’s really going to hurt, especially small and rural libraries the most.
Miller: There was obviously a ton of local and national coverage – for very good reasons – for the cuts to Medicaid and to SNAP benefits. Much less was focused on things like library services. And so, but as a result, I feel like I don’t really have a sense for the articulated reasons for this particular cut. Is that out there? I mean, is someone on the record saying this is why we have made this cut?
Cornelisen: What a great question. I’ve not heard a detailed reason for making this cut other than to reduce the overall amount of the federal budget. Given the incredibly small percentage of the federal budget that this funding is, it’s 0.004% of the overall federal budget.
Miller: Well, and that gets to the difference in the scale of the federal money, the lost federal money that we’re talking about now. The Oregon Health Authority is looking at billions of dollars that they’re not going to have in the next six years. You’re losing $2.6 million a year, not to minimize that – it’s an existential threat to your office, as we’ve been talking about – but it’s a rounding error for the Oregon Health Plan alone, let alone the federal budget. How do you think about those different amounts?
Cornelisen: I recognize how important that all of these funds are. The money that we’re talking about for libraries is, yes, a small amount, but libraries utilize these dollars every single day and in very impactful ways in their communities. These dollars help connect and uplift every single person. And being able to expand the dollars that are spent at the local level to keep a library open, those day-to-day costs are funded locally. But the federal money really helps make an impact and helps libraries do transformative things. Libraries are really a critical part of an economic engine in every community, and by reducing the amount of federal funding that they have access to, that they’re able to leverage and utilize in so many different ways, there’s really gonna be a hit on the impact that libraries can make.
Miller: Once something is cut, how hard do you think it is to get it back in a budget?
Cornelisen: There has been federal support for libraries since 1957. President Eisenhower initially added Library Services Act money for libraries at that point in time. President Nixon re-energized library services money in the late 1960s. The Library Services Construction Act was transformed to the Library Services Technology Act in 1996. So we have over 30 years of stable funding at the federal level just focused on technology and the updates that were needed in this time of great change in our country. I don’t know how easy it would ever be to get federal funding back for libraries, because it is such change in the couch cushion for Congress. It is such a small amount of money, and we would need strong champions at the federal level to really bring attention back to the needs of the local level.
Miller: In about an hour, you’re going to be having an Oregon Library Association Board meeting with librarians from around the state. My understanding is that you’re in Redmond right now and in preparation for that meeting. How much are these financial issues and fears going to be on the agenda?
Cornelisen: They are absolutely on the agenda. Yes, I am here at the Redmond Public Library for the OLA board meeting today. I serve ex officio on the Oregon Library Association Board. It is very top of mind for librarians across the state. They’re concerned about losing these services, they’re concerned about losing the staff support that they receive from the state library, and they really want to make sure that their libraries are ready for the future trends, ready for the future work that needs to be done in Oregon and this federal funding helps support that.
Miller: Wendy Cornelisen, thanks very much.
Cornelisen: Thank you.
Miller: Wendy Cornelisen is Oregon’s state librarian. The state library is facing a loss of all of its federal funding in the next fiscal year.
“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.
If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.
