Rows upon rows and stacks upon stacks of books, as well as other valuable materials, are offered by the La Crosse Public Library located on Main Street, on the banks of the downtown La Crosse area.

But the public library is faced with having to cut back on hours as well positions due to a large reduction in state revenue that is not only affecting the library, but all other city departments as well. As of Jan. 1, 2012, the library will be implementing a schedule change in their hours of operation. On Mondays through Thursdays, the library will close at 8 p.m. instead of 9 p.m.

Kelly Krieg-Sigman, the director of the main public library, described the uniqueness of the public library and said that it holds a full archives department at the main branch and has two additional full service branches in addition to the main library. No other city of comparable size in the state has that same situation.

The archives department will experience a change in that it will close at 5 p.m., beginning Jan. 1. "The bright side of all these changes is that on Fridays, beginning Jan. 1, the library will stay open until 6 p.m., which has been in high demand," said Krieg-Sigman.

Because of the dramatic reductions of the state revenue, the library is trying to figure out how to balance bringing in new material and having to lay off employers due to their budget going from $5.1 million to $4.7 million in one year.

"Libraries are all about access and we are being faced with the factor of having to reduce our access, and this negatively impacts someone at some point," said Krieg-Sigman. The budget and material reduction will impact all three library branches, but the hours will stay the same at the North and South branches. Krieg-Sigman thinks that the funding won't return in the next two years; but by 2015, there will hopefully be relief presented.

For now, a temporary solution that the library has come up with is hosting an event called Give a Gift on Nov. 11, 2011 at 4-7 p.m. at the Main Public Library, which is the same time that the local downtown area businesses kick off their sale promotions. "Over $10,000 worth of adult and children's books will be available for people to purchase, which are great gift ideas for the holiday season," said Krieg-Sigman "with the proceeds collected going directly to the library to try and provide the best materials for the community to use."

The event also includes appetizers and spirits and anyone can attend, wearing anything from formal attire to jeans. Andie Forcey, a UW-L junior and a public library employee who works as a Reference Aide, explained that the reductions will not affect her directly, but she feels that it is unfortunate that the supply of materials coming into the library will have to be limited and reduced. "The archives department, which holds specific older materials involving La Crosse and family histories, will now close at 5 p.m. instead of 9 p.m," said Forcey. "This really affects people being able to use those materials because those materials can't leave the archives room, which really limits the availability."