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In Chicopee, Western Mass. librarians make case for state funding

One of several scheduled throughout the Pioneer Valley, the Chicopee Public Library hosted a legislative breakfast focused on all things library funding-related on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025.
James Paleologopoulos
/
WAMC
One of several scheduled throughout the Pioneer Valley, the Chicopee Public Library hosted a legislative breakfast focused on all things library funding-related on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025.

With state legislative sessions underway, so are legislative breakfasts – bagel and coffee-filled meet-ups connecting lawmakers with advocates across different sectors. That includes libraries. In Massachusetts, officials are calling for modest increases in the face of a tighter budget recently put forward by Governor Maura Healey.

During her State of the Commonwealth address, Healey said her next budget would be an efficient one. Filed last week, the $61.5 billion package is about $3 billion more than the spending plan she put forward last year.

The final budget passed included a few funding boosts for libraries – increases for line items like a $2.3 million boost for Regional Libraries Local Aid and $2.4 million for Public Libraries Local Aid.

Library advocates are hoping for more of the same this year, though Healey’s initial FY26 budget has little in the way of increases.

“I should note that the governor released her budget just a few days ago, and what we saw in it, for the Board of Library Commissioners, is level funding, and we appreciate that recognition,” said Tim Cherubini is Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. “I should say that that recognition means something, it is not a given in many states in the U.S. today.”

Cherubini and other groups still made the pitch for funding increases during a Library Legislative Breakfast in Chicopee Friday.

At the Chicopee Public Library on Front Street, leadership from the MBLC, Massachusetts Library System and the Central and Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing consortium, or CW-MARS, called for increases across the board.

They also got a tour of one of the region’s few bookmobiles, according to Community Outreach Librarian, Rachel Zarvis. She says the box truck outfitted to be a library on wheels served some 10,000 people last year.

“Thankfully, it's heated, but the door is open so only so heated, but we've got rows of books, we have DVDs, there's iPads that are locked away at present, but I could open it up if you'd like to play Angry Birds,” she told WAMC. “Children's non-fiction, children's graphic, YA. I mean, listen, you want it, I've got a Bop It, even.”

As for the breakfast, The MBLC’s budget request includes about a million dollars for regional local aid and another $2 million for public libraries – bringing their potential totals to $19.95 million and $22 million respectively. 

Also, a $130,000 increase for the Massachusetts Center for the Book – a nonprofit dedicated fostering literacy and promoting unrestricted access to books and libraries, according to its website.

That’s on top of programming it operates, says Courtney Andree, the center’s executive director – including its reading challenge program.

“This year, our Reading Challenge program reached thousands of readers across more than 330 Massachusetts cities and towns - that's just about every town in the state,” she said. “The program operates in partnership with over 180 public and school libraries and bookstores, and we're encouraging students and adults to read all year-round. We're still looking for partners for 2025 - it's not too late - and this year, we're very excited to have launched program materials in Spanish and Portuguese.”

Lawmakers in attendance included Ludlow Democratic State Senator Jake Oliveira, who’s been behind bills meant to protect school and public librarians from an onslaught of book challenges libraries have been seeing across the country.

The legislation got caught up in committees last year, but according to officials, “An Act regarding free expression” has been reintroduced this session.

“We fund libraries - just over $50 million a year - through those various line items, but within them, there are ways in which we can increase, to support them,” Oliveira told WAMC. “We understand that municipalities also have a strong role to play in budgeting for our libraries as well, but this, today, was a show of support for each other and support for librarians in general. You know, there's been a lot of targeting of books within schools, within our public libraries, and we want to stand up to support them.”

Chicopee Public Library Director Laura Bovee tells WAMC when push comes to shove, any extra dollars that support libraries also directly supports the communities they serve.

“The importance of those bills, the budget, of course, is always very important - that supports, directly, programs that we can offer for our patrons,” she told reporters. “The other bills, it sort of just clears the decks for us to do our jobs. Many of us have master’s degrees – we’re well trained in what we’re doing in choosing books for our communities and this just sort of allows us to do what we’re trained to do.