Following the yearly budgetary follies of the state Legislature this summer, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and its Commonwealth counterparts were given a whopping 0.3 percent increase for next year.

This drop in the state bucket has prompted the library to seek a $1 million increase from Allegheny County's Regional Assets Board.

Library director Barbara Mistick made the request at a RAD session last week as the agency began its series of funding hearings on the 2008 disbursements.

She said the added revenue, a 6 percent increase to $17.7 million in operating funds, would be used to restore cutbacks in hours of operation and raise salaries.

"We're still not meeting the state's standards of 65 hours a week for library access," she said. "Right now, we're at 59 hours a week."

The Carnegie Library trimmed its operations in 2003 when Gov. Ed Rendell slashed state aid by 50 percent. That reduction has been gradually trimmed, but library aid has yet to reach pre-2003 levels.

To compound Carnegie's troubles, its accountants project that state aid might drop about $227,000 next year based on the city's slipping population and its part in a funding formula.

This past fiscal year, the Carnegie Library received $4.6 million from Harrisburg.

"We can't rely on the state for more money in the future," Mistick concluded.

As the Carnegie director and others have frequently stressed, libraries depend on local financial support to stay in step with technological and societal changes.

Case in point: Mistick said the federal government is telling immigrants seeking to apply for U.S. citizenship to use the library's computers to get the application. As immigration grows here, so does the demand on the library's equipment.

She also pointed out in her presentation that support for libraries in Allegheny County boils down to $16.18 a person while in Cleveland, that figure is $120.

Ohio leads the nation in spending on libraries while Pennsylvania is a dismal 43rd in local support. In more specific terms, 62 percent of Carnegie Library's total revenue is from local sources. The national average of local backing for library funding is 81 percent.

Consider that percentage when you hear state officials brag that Pennsylvania is No. 3 in financial support for its libraries.

It's quite a gap to cover, not one that the usual Band-Aid approach will solve.