The Rasmuson Foundation has awarded the Homer Library a $23,691 grant to expand its materials collections which will help the public facility in the face of recent budget cuts.
Library Director Ann Dixon says she submitted the application before the city had finalized its fiscal budget but things weren’t looking good since nearly every department in Homer had funding cut.
Dixon: “Our book budget in particular was cut by 43 percent for this fiscal year, so that was quite a hit. Our periodicals and our dvds and audiobooks were also cut by about 17 percent each. So I was really holding my breath to see if we would get this grant or not.”
She says the bulk of the Rasmuson grant will go to books for adults and then the remaining funds will be used to purchase books for teens, audio books, educational dvds, and various language courses.