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The $950,000 blow to the Connecticut Library Consortium forced the discontinuation as of September 30 of InfoAnytime, a popular 24/7 online reference service that brings Tutor.com access to 162 public and academic libraries, as well as the i C ON N digital library, former CLA president Carl A. Antonucci Jr. to Id American Libraries.

It's autumn - that time of year when a library official's fancy turns to thoughts of the next fiscal year. At least that's what should happen, unless said library official is beleaguered by the specter of revenue -projection shortfalls that could erode carefully laid plans for the current fiscal year.

Truth be told, library officials who weren't feeling beleaguered were the exception, particularly those in Connecticut, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In those states, legislative horse trading was continuing well into FY2010.

Connecticut Library Association President Randi Ashton-Pritting wrote Gov. Jo di ReIl September 29 to request that library -vendor contracts be exempted from a late August directive that state agencies had to absorb a total of $473 million in "outside vendor" holdbacks - a fiscal legerdemain in which the state doesn't distribute expected payments even though it hasn't actually reduced appropriations. The $950,000 blow to the Connecticut Library Consortium forced the discontinuation as of September 30 of InfoAnytime, a popular 24/7 online reference service that brings Tutor.com access to 162 public and academic libraries, as well as the i C ON N digital library, former CLA president Carl A. Antonucci Jr. to Id American Libraries.

Michigan's statewide library book and electronic material-sharing program has gotten caught in a budget standoff between Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the legislature. Despite her orders to prioritize funding for the Michigan e Library (MeL) and Michigan eLibrary Catalog (MeLCat), Gov. Granholm signed into law October 12 a 40% cut to libraries' $10 -million resource -sharing budget. The $4 -million loss at the state level is expected to trigger the withholding of another $4 million in federal aid to libraries.

After enduring a budget battle that ended 101 days beyond the July 1 start of G?2010 (see page 17), weary Pennsylvania library advocates began making lemonade from the $68.3 million in state support that was left for libraries for FY2010-a 26.7% cut from the $94.6 million appropriated inFY2009. Pennsylvania Library Association Executive Director Glenn Miller told American Libraries that "the jury is still out" on what it will mean that the zero -funded Electronic Library Catalog has been folded into the Library Access program, which took a 57% cut.

Time to regroup

Before the budget ink was dry, determined library communities were strategizing about how to regain their collective buying power. Michigan Library Association Executive Director Gretchen Courand told the September 29 Lansing State Journal that MLA was considering a lawsuit to force the state to abide by a statute mandating that the Library of Michigan receive $1.50 per person annually for library resource sharing. Connecticut librarians issued a call in their consortium's October newsletter to colleagues interested in "a cost -sharing proposition" to save InfoAnytime. PaLAs Glenn Miller told .4L he was analyzing "how far you can stretch $3 million to cover $11.1 million of resource - sharing services ." - B. G.