bluesyemre

• The stock market has hit record highs, and unemployment has reached the lowest level since the recession began. Despite this good news, the library economic environment has not seen commensurate improvement. There continues to be a struggle to find the resources needed to support library collections and services, and conditions remain highly unsettled. According to the National Association of State Budget Officers, 24 states are working from 2013 budgets with lower general fund expenditures in FY13 than in 2008, the last year before the recession. Nearly half the states have not returned to prerecession levels of revenue and spending. Overall, total general fund expenditures for all states will not exceed the pre­recession high of $687.3 billion spent in FY08. Funding for K-12 education has seen a little relief as a total of $4.9 billion was added to state budgets overall, but higher education is still seeing cuts, as 16 states reduced allocations for higher education by a total of just over $1 billion.

http://j.mp/177CYKT