On December 3, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem released the state budget for FY26, which includes devastating news for the State Library in Pierre, the state capital. The institution will have its budget cut by 12.5 FTE in staff, $1,030,267 in general funds, and $1,399,443 in federal fund expenditure authority. The library currently has 21 staff members, but if the measure passes, seven remaining staff members will work in accessibility services for disabled users, leaving two employees to cover everything else. Governor Noem—best known outside South Dakota for claiming in her memoir to have shot her puppy—states in her budget report that cuts to the State Library’s budget are due to COVID relief funds ending and a drop in sales tax. However, legislators’ salaries and many other state budget items will see increased funding. For the same budget year, the next-smallest state after South Dakota in terms of population numbers, North Dakota, proposes to increase its State Library’s budget by 14.7 percent.

South Dakota’s proposed cut in funds would affect not only the State Library but public and academic libraries statewide, as the State Library’s provision of content and services to other South Dakota libraries would discontinue. The state offers 84 databases, including Gale’s ebooks on health and other topics, and BookFlix, a collection of talking ebooks for children. In a state that ranks 23rd worst for overall health care access, and with only 18.8 percent of the state’s Native residents having health insurance through an employer, lack of access to health information is a danger. Young readers losing materials to assist them is also problematic, as an Annie E. Casey Foundation report reveals that 68 percent of the state’s fourth graders aren’t proficient in reading. Summer reading programs for youth will also be cut if the budget passes. At the same time, school technology funds will also be cut by this budget, so that local funding likely won’t be available for schools to subscribe to the databases that the state library currently provides.

Elizabeth Fox, president of the South Dakota State Library Association, explained that the impact of this budget will be felt differently by different kinds of libraries. School libraries, she said, will likely have to form consortia to pay for access to the databases that they will otherwise lose. But the worst impact on schools and small public libraries, noted Fox, will be the loss of the professional training that the State Library currently provides statewide. “Many of the school libraries, especially elementary and middle, don’t have degreed librarians and they rely on the State Library for training, which the library is exceptional at,” said Fox. “The training allows an English teacher to take over the library without having a library media degree and still provide quality services.”

At public libraries, the biggest problem will be loss of database access, she added, particularly mentioning Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest Online, both resources that are used for genealogical research. Public libraries will also miss the training provided by the State Library, said Fox, as “there are lots of one-staff-member libraries throughout the state, very small places, and those librarians are often not degreed. They do a magnificent job because of training from the State Library.”

Gerri Awalt, director of Webster Public Library, SD, explained that at her library “the databases would be a huge loss, especially Libby, as patrons use that a lot,” and expressed hope that some COVID relief funds were sent back to the state and could be used by the State Library. “I hope that our representatives see the importance of libraries,” said Awalt, continuing, “We will be reaching out to our representatives. We use all these databases and programs and we can’t afford to have those disappear.”

Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Association (ALA), discussed the importance of libraries to users. “Libraries are the hub of their community. It’s so important that every American has equal access and can become part of an informed citizenry.” On the loss of electronic resources, she said, “Not everyone can afford access to the internet at home, and we see patrons using computers to access telehealth appointments and job seeking. Libraries hold collections of books and materials, but we also expand to meet our communities’ information needs.”

ALA began to be aware of the crisis in South Dakota, Hohl said, when members expressed concern that the budget currently on the table cuts library funds while financing voucher programs that pay for private schools and alternative education, such as homeschooling.

“Homeschool families use libraries at a very high rate,” she noted, explaining that students who now use library databases would instead need to pay consumer sources to get their research materials. “If a student needs five to 10 sources [for a paper], those are typically about $30 each in the consumer marketplace, so a student would need $300 to pay for sources for a paper,” said Hohl. The return on investment in library funds is high, she added. South Dakota received $700,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in FY24, she noted, with that money realizing more than $2 million in library services. “The new budget says don’t accept IMLS funding,” said Hohl. “Every single state should have access to information that streams online, and that will be gone.”

Hohl, a member of the Santee Sioux Nation, explained that small and rural libraries will be disproportionately hit by a State Library defunding, as they have few resources, as will Native residents of South Dakota. “Those in the mainstream feel that Natives are on their own and whatever happens, happens,” she said. “When you hear that elected officials don’t see a responsibility to every single person in the state, it creates an inequitable situation. It’s very troubling to hear that individuals who reside in South Dakota would continue to lose access to what everyone else has.” Fox explained that the Native population “had a very contentious relationship with the governor already” and that they would probably be the group “least surprised among anybody” by these cuts.

Danielle De Jager-Loftus, assistant professor, University Libraries, University of South Dakota at Vermillion, is ALA Councilor for the South Dakota Library Association. “A lot of services are on the block, such as professional development and digital resources. The State Library provides resources for K–12, public, and academic libraries, so it would be a huge loss,” explained De Jager-Loftus. Rural libraries would be particularly disadvantaged by the loss of interlibrary loan services, she said, while academic libraries would lose courier services. In her own library, she said, librarians use EBSCO Academic Search Complete and ProQuest Research Library to teach research skills in English 101 and other early college classes. Those resources are “mission critical,” she added, and the library would have to cut funds from something else to continue to pay for them.

The state library association is conducting an advocacy campaign to have State Library funding restored to the FY26 budget. (To become involved in such efforts, readers can use ALA’s and EveryLibrary’s advocacy tools.) “We’re doing all we can,” said De Jager-Loftus. “When we talk to our legislators, they don’t understand the extent of the problem.” ALA has been very helpful, she noted. The association’s advocacy page links to State Library explanations of what the institution does (“We are a library for libraries”) and what is cut in the proposed budget. The Library Association’s president is confident that this awareness effort will bear fruit. “I am very positive that we’re going to get funding back,” she told LJ. “Enough of the population, including our legislators, didn't understand what defunding the State Library would mean, and I think giving them information means that we will be getting funding back.”

At press time, Governor Noem’s office had not returned a request for comment, and employees at the South Dakota State Library explained that they were not allowed to speak to the media.