|
(Updated: 10/21/2025)
 The New York State Legislature's 2026 session is less than 3 months away, meaning now is the perfect time to advocate for New York libraries! As we continue to advocate for Governor Hochul to sign the Freedom to Read Act (S.1099 - May/A.7777 - Simone) into law before the end of 2025, New York's library community must also focus our attention on laying the groundwork for success in the year ahead. Over the summer, NYLA's Legislative Committee convened to discuss the top issues facing of New York's libraries and identify key areas of focus for library advocacy in the coming year. From this conversation the Legislative Committee developed, and NYLA's Council approved, statewide budget requests and legislative priorities for 2026.
Please find below an overview of NYLA's budget requests and legislative priorities for 2026. This page will be updated with additional materials and information as they become available, so please check back regularly to ensure you have the most up-to-date advocacy resources! If you have any questions or concerns regarding library advocacy, please email inquiries to [email protected].
  
NYLA's FY 2027 State Budget Requests
Library Operating Aid: $181.3 million
Library Operating Aid, also known as State Aid for Libraries, is statutory funding for use by each library type and system. State aid is leveraged by regional library systems to support eBook access, interlibrary loan, delivery, continuing education, coordination of collection development, automation, and other resource sharing activities.
Despite small increases over the last two years, Library Operating Aid has been underfunded by over $207 million since FY 1992, with over $155 million of that total occurring since FY 2009. When coupled with rising operational costs, this underfunding means increased aid is needed to support New York State libraries so they can continue improving the lives of residents of all ages, abilities and economic status. Adequate funding is needed to support school, public, and academic libraries and library systems.
Library Construction Aid: $175M
Library Construction Aid refers to funds allocated annually in the state budget for the use of public libraries and systems for construction, renovation, rehabilitation, or acquisition of new space. Other eligible or unique projects include broadband installation, emergency generators, and security systems. Unfortunately, while the New York State Library estimates a whopping $1.75B in the deferred construction needs across all New York libraries, the state has never allocated more than $44 million in annual construction aid for libraries.
Over half of New York’s libraries are over 60 years old. Increased investment is needed to maintain and modernize the physical infrastructure of New York State’s libraries, ensuring New Yorkers have safe, accessible, and sustainable libraries for generations to come.
Library Materials Aid: $11.33/pupil
Library Materials Aid (LMA) is a category of Instructional Materials Aid, along with Textbook, Software, and Computer Hardware & Equipment Aid. It is intended to supplement local funds budgeted for school library program support. LMA is allocated to school districts via reimbursement, with a maximum award set by law as $6.25 per public and non-public school student residing within a school district’s boundaries.
The per-pupil rate of $6.25 has remained stagnant since 2007. We are seeking an increase to the rate to reflect general inflation and the rising costs of materials in school libraries.
In FY 2027, NYLA seeks to build on efforts in FY 2025 and FY 2026 that saw both the Assembly and Senate include increasing the statutory per-pupil reimbursement rate to at least $11.33 in their One House budget proposals. New York cannot allow two decades to pass without increasing its investment in student access to library materials.
NOVELny: $3.1M
Established in 2000 and facilitated by the New York State Library, NOVELny is a curated collection of databases and resources. It offers access to hundreds of academic journals, magazines newspapers, maps, charts, research, and reference materials available to all New York residents free of charge.
Since its inception, NOVELny has been of particular use in the school setting, where it has become an embedded resource with over two decades of integration in lesson plans and curriculum maps in school districts statewide. Unfortunately, without the advantages offered by state contract rates and central purchasing, the cost of obtaining the resources provided by NOVELny would be prohibitive for many school districts, public libraries, and academic libraries across our state.
All New Yorkers, regardless of age, socioeconomic standing, or local funding, deserve equitable access to reliable, reputable information resources that allow them to be lifelong learners and informed citizens. Building on the successful campaign to save NOVELny from funding-related termination via the inclusion of $3 million in both the FY 2025 and FY 2026 state budgets, NYLA is advocating for $3.1 million in FY 2027 to ensure no resources are lost due to annual cost increases.
Cultural Education Fee: $30
The primary source of operational funding for the New York State Office of Cultural Education, including the New York State Library, State Archives, State Museum, Summer School of the Arts, and Public Broadcasting Program, is the Cultural Education Account. The account is funded by the Cultural Education Fee, a one-time fee collected by county clerks and clerks for the City of New York for the recording, entering, indexing, or endorsing certain instruments. The current fee of $15 was set in 2002 and has not increased in 23 years, despite core costs like wages and employee benefits more than doubling in that period. As such, the account runs a chronic deficit, forcing the state to offload responsibility for 55 of the NYSL’s 84 positions to funding received via the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Grants to States program.
NYLA supports increasing the Cultural Education Fee to $30 per transaction as a way to stabilize the Office of Cultural Education and maintain a fully operational State Library, both now and in the future.
Back to menu
2026 Policy Priorities
Intellectual Freedom
Key Legislation to Support: Open Shelves Act - S.1100-A (May)/A.3119-B (Kelles) - NYLA Memo of Support
Libraries across our state face rapidly expanding efforts to censor materials and programming they deem objectionable based on subjective personal sensibilities and partisan ideologies. We require legislation that empowers library professionals to exercise their expertise and ensure public access to materials, services, and programs that represent their interests.
NYLA supports and helped craft the Open Shelves Act (S.1100-A/A.3119-B). In its present form, the Open Shelves Act would include in the state's Standards of Library Service a requirement that libraries adopt policies and procedures that that ensure library staff are able to curate and develop collections, services, and programming in a manner consistent with the values and protections established under the Human Rights Law under Article Fifteen of the Executive Law and the Equal Rights Amendment to the State Constitution.
The legislative intent of this bill, included in its text, states:
It is the sense of the legislature that public libraries are essential to ensuring broad access to information, fostering informed citizenship, intellectual exploration, and imagination. By ensuring that library collections, services, and programming reflect diverse experiences and perspectives, the legislature seeks to maintain libraries as spaces where all members of the community can engage with the marketplace of ideas, promoting open access to information and points of view. Librarians are professionals trained to curate robust collections that serve the full spectrum of their communities, and this legislation affirms the state's trust in their ability to do so.
eBooks Licensing Reform
Key Legislation to Support: A.3589 (Carroll) - NYLA Memo of Support
Interest in electronic materials, specifically eBooks and eAudiobooks, spiked at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and, according to data released last month as part of the federal Institute for Museum and Library Services’ annual Public Libraries Survey, circulation has only continued to grow in the years since. Attempts to keep up with increasing user demand for eBooks have been throttled by an industry-specific pricing model that precludes libraries from accessing materials on terms equal to those afforded to the general public.
Rather than allowing libraries to purchase eBooks on equal terms with individual consumers, they are largely restricted to limited licenses that cost exponentially more than print materials or even private purchases of the same e-content. These temporary licenses typically expire after fixed periods of time or once a particular number of circulations is reached, whichever occurs first. As such, libraries must continuously re-license materials to maintain access. This situation strains already limited budgets, prevents the development of stable collections of eBooks and eAudiobooks, and prices many libraries out of satisfying patron demand for those materials.
If enacted, A.3589 would require that any contract between libraries and publishers who offer electronic books (eBooks and eAudiobooks) be governed by the laws of New York State under its authority to regulate intrastate commerce. Additionally, it would establish a list of provisions prohibited from inclusion in said contracts, thereby affording library patrons across our state equitable access to the content they seek.
Media Literacy in New York State
Media Literacy education is an instructional discipline that teaches students how to apply critical thinking, reading, and reflection skills as they engage with our ever-evolving information and media landscape.
In New York's school libraries, Certified Library Media Specialists have utilized their unique credentials as experts in both education and information science to lead the way in development and delivery of media literacy education. As information technology advances and use of artificial intelligence continues to alter the digital landscape, Media Literacy instruction and the expertise of our school librarians will only grow in importance.
As such, NYLA is working to develop and pursue legislation that expands Media Literacy education in New York schools and solidify the role of Certified Library Media Specialists as leaders in the discipline.
Civil Service Reform
Across New York, persistent issues within Civil Service for the field of librarianship are undermining the recruitment and retention of library staff. As such, NYLA is revisiting still unrealized Civil Service priorities from past legislative sessions to identify specific amendments to current processes and protocols to target in 2026.
There are nearly a dozen other initiatives that NYLA is currently in the researching, drafting, and advocating for. Please contact [email protected] for more information on any additional priorities that NYLA is pursuing.
Back to menu
Advocacy Resources
Back to menu
|
