Simplified: Gov. Kristi Noem has proposed a significant reduction in funding to the South Dakota State Library in her 2025 budget, a move that, if approved by the legislature, would also significantly impact Siouxland Libraries' access to resources that thousands of people in the community rely on.
Why it matters
- Director Jodi Fick said if the cuts are approved, the Sioux Falls library system will do what it can to maintain access to online databases currently provided at the state level, but it won't be possible to keep everything on an already-tight budget.
- Inter-library loans, in which a person can borrow a book from a different library delivered via state courier, are also likely to be a casualty of state library cuts. That's a program nearly 5,700 Sioux Falls library members took advantage of last year.
- By defunding the state library, South Dakotans will miss out on the efficiencies of scale it affords to readers. The state library manages the Libby e-reader app for rural parts of the state, as well as access to several research databases, including EBSCO and Ancestry Plus.
- Fick also called the state library a "well-oiled machine," noting that she doesn't see any areas of excess spending, but rather years of finding efficiencies in programming.
"This is the stuff you don't always know is there until it's gone," Fick said. "And once it's gone, it's extremely hard to recreate."
What happens next?
It'll be up to lawmakers to decide the state budget. If library access is important to you, you can find contact information for your state legislators here.
South Dakota's 100th legislative session is expected to kick off Jan. 14.
