Clare Graham (center), director of the Mid-Ark Regional Library system, addresses the Arkansas State Library Board during a special meeting at the State Library’s Little Rock headquarters while Library Development Director Jenn Wann (left) and Calhoun County Library Director Allie Gosselink (right) listen on March 2, 2026. (Photo by Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)
Funding averts suspension of library services such as summer reading programs
By Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate
Arkansas public libraries will be able to resume summer reading programs, e-book offerings and other services that were in limbo, after a state board freed up more than $1 million Monday in funds it had tabled last month.
The Arkansas State Library Board voted 5-0 at a special meeting Monday to distribute the $1.37 million after discussing rules and standards for the use of the funds with Department of Education and State Library officials for an hour and a half. The seven-member board has one vacant seat, and one member was absent Monday.
The board declined to vote on the funding at its regular meeting in February, saying it needed clarity on how to ensure the money was being spent responsibly.
Library directors told the board Monday after the vote that they appreciated both the in-depth discussion of the rules and the decision to release the funds.
“I’m here today to speak for five counties who really depend on the support that we receive from the state, and we’re really thankful for every penny that we receive, because it allows us to do more for our community,” said Clare Graham, director of the Mid-Ark Regional Library System, which covers Saline, Hot Spring, Grant, Dallas and Cleveland counties.
Without the state funds, some libraries in the five-county system would have had to suspend services, including summer reading programs, Graham said.
The Faulkner County Library resumed buying new e-book titles Monday after pausing the purchases last month due to the funding delay, director John McGraw told the Arkansas Advocate.
State aid funding is vital to running libraries in counties that have not increased the property tax millage supporting the library in more than four decades, Graham said.
She and her fellow library directors, Allie Gosselink and Adam Webb, said library funding already has accountability and oversight.
Gosselink said she’s “accountable for every single penny in and around my library.”
“There’s no amount of accountability that is too much for me,” Gosselink said.
Librarians have repeatedly asked the state for clearer funding rules, especially after a 2024 law altered funding eligibility standards to allow aid for smaller libraries not supported with local property tax millage.
Audits and other oversight
The board discussed requiring libraries’ governing bodies to submit their budgets and meeting minutes to the state at least once a year. Libraries already provide this information to state auditors annually, the library directors said.
Reviewing all library boards’ meeting minutes would take more time and resources than the State Library has, Library Development director Jenn Wann said.
Board Chairman Clay Goff of Beebe said it’s important to ensure that library boards are meeting at least once quarterly as required by law. Last month’s delay came after the board learned that a regional library board in north Arkansas had not been meeting to distribute its state aid funds.
Libraries receive extra state funds if they are part of a regional network. Cleburne and Sharp counties’ libraries separated from the the White River Regional Library late last year. Neither county’s libraries had been receiving extra funds, State Library Board member Jack Fortner of Yellville said.
Arkansas Legislative Audit regularly reviews state agencies and local governments, but it does not have jurisdiction over regional library systems, which need to hire a third party for their annual audits. The White River Regional Library has not been audited in years, but it hired a new regional director in February and will resume annual audits, regional board chairwoman Debbie Moore told the board in a letter read aloud at Monday’s meeting.
State Education Secretary Jacob Oliva said auditing libraries would be outside his agency’s purview. The State Library is under the umbrella of the Education Department but operates independently.
State Library Board members and Education Department officials said they were open to further discussion about education requirements for library directors.
As of last year, library directors no longer need a master’s degree in library science from an accredited American Library Association program in order for libraries to receive state funding. Gosselink and Webb, who runs the Garland County Library, both told the board that it should put forth clear standards for library directors’ education, work experience or both.
Before the Legislature removed this requirement, one library director’s accredited degree could secure extra state aid funds for an entire regional library network, State Library Deputy Director Kristen Cooke said.
“If that [requirement] vacates entirely, there will be a vacuum and we will see more libraries split apart” like the White River Regional Library did, Cooke said.
The State Library Board’s next regular meeting is May 8.
The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy.
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