By Avice Meehan

Librarians across Connecticut let out a collective gasp in early April when the federal government abruptly cancelled grants to the Connecticut State Library and two other states, California and Washington. 

The $2.1 million grant pays for important statewide infrastructure that supports libraries from Norfolk in the Northwest Corner to Norwich on shoreline  through services that range from the all-important inter-library loan to broadband access. Less than half the funds have been received to carry the state through Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year.

“The direct impacts have yet to be determined, contingent upon how the state library reallocates its budget,” said Ann Havemeyer, director of the Norfolk Library. 

For the moment, the state library is making no changes while it awaits the outcome of a multi-state legal action. Dawn LaValle, director of the Division of Library Development, says that no programming changes are being made on advice of counsel.

That’s good news for Norfolk’s library patrons, who depend on inter-library loan for hundreds of books every year. Those can range from a Kingsley Amis novel published nearly 40 years ago to an obscure academic text needed for a research project. Likewise, with its emphasis on contemporary fiction, Norfolk can supply readers with options that may not be available locally.

According to data reported by the state, Norfolk residents borrowed nearly 900 books in 2024, and the library loaned out another 2,658. That number, which seems big enough, is dwarfed by the activity that occurs across the state. Known as “deliverIT CT,” the statewide system helped move more than 15,000 items between and among libraries every day, serving more than 1.5 million people.

As an important gathering place in Norfolk, the town’s library has also  applied for a grant to expand broadband access through the e-rate program and received a $28,000. To put that into perspective, the library documented 380 hours of public use of its computers, on top of Wi-Fi usage by library patrons who use their own devices.

The Norfolk Library is fortunate in comparison to others across Connecticut because it is privately funded through a combination of an endowment, robust fundraising through the Library Associates and community contributions. For example, the Library Associates support summer reading programs while many other communities rely on grants.

Havemeyer joined with six other Litchfield County librarians to make this point: “Federal funding for libraries accounts for only 0.003 percent of the federal budget, and this incredibly modest investment is leveraged at the local level to ensure that all of our communities have access to essential library services.”