ABC 33/40 - Birmingham News, Weather, SportsNon-profit surviving without funding from Jefferson County

Jefferson County's upcoming cuts could kill money for non-profits. More are expected to be told to find its own funding.

The Jefferson County Library Cooperative was among the first to be cut off and has launched a successful fundraising campaign.

The JCLC's one card gives people in Jefferson County access to 21 libraries, as well as internet and the online catalogue and databases. Until recently, most people didn't know the JCLC was responsible. But now the organization is becoming more visible to save itself.

"We start at 6:30 loading the trucks up and go back out at seven o'clock. When we come back, it's 2:30 or 3 o'clock,"said Carl Dunning, a library courier.

Dunning and other library couriers clock countless miles transporting roughly four million books and DVDs between the Jefferson County libraries each year.

Without the JCLC, Dunning wouldn't have a job and a library card would only give people access to materials at an individual branch.

"There would be a lot of disappointed people because they wouldn't get the books to read or media to look at," said Dunning.

No cooperative would also mean no internet and no county wide catalogue.

"We are just the glue keeping everyone together," said Pat Ryan, director of the JCLC.

Donations are now keeping the cooperative together. It began its first campaign drive in 2009 when Jefferson County reduced its funding. In October, it eliminated it.

While campaign goals are being met so far, the subscriptions to Heritage Quest and Reference USA will be cut.

"We've cut everything behind the scenes. We are working on a bare bones budget at this point," said Ryan.

The cooperative is just a few hundred dollars shy of its current campaign.

Ryan expects competition for those donations to get worse when the county makes its 40 million dollar cut next month.

"We are all competing against each other. There's no way around it," she said.

That's why a new PR campaign is in the works to remind the 650 thousand people who use the services of how much the JCLC does behind the scenes.

"We serve from the cradle to the grave. In economic times, libraries are important," said Ryan.

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The cooperative will ask state lawmakers to find more money for Jefferson County. It hopes that a restoration of county revenue will bring back non-profit funding.