Behind this reply, and its many variations, is the ever-present budget problem all libraries must face, from the largest to the smallest.
Most library budgets are hopelessly inadequate.
The plight of a small community library is proportionately worse. Confronted with this situation, most libraries either endure the severe limitations of their budgets and do what they can with what they have, or else depend on the bounty of patrons and local governments to supplement their annual funds. New York State has what is probably the most advanced of these co-operative systems, so well developed that it has become a model for others to follow. At one extreme are the systems of upper New York State, where libraries in two or more counties combine to serve a large, sparsely populated area. At the other are organizations like the newly formed Nassau Library System, in a high-density area, with ample resources and a rapidly growing territory to serve.