Faced with a $6 million budget cut, the state public library system will be asking library users, corporations and foundations to donate whatever they can to prevent major cutbacks at the state's 51 libraries.

The fundraising effort, "Keep Your Library Open!," is set to be announced this morning by the Hawaii State Public Library System and the Friends of the Library of Hawai'i. Each entity will conduct its own fundraising drive, and the combined effort is intended to ensure that no library will be closed permanently because of projected budget shortfalls.

The Friends of the Library hopes to raise $3 million by getting 1 million library users statewide to donate $3 each. Donations will be accepted through the Friends of the Library office in Kaka'ako and through its Web site and at Bank of Hawaii branches, said Keith Fujio, administrative services director for the library system.

"They are going to be cumulatively collecting the money and it'll go to library operations and to meet the shortages," Fujio said.

The library system will conduct its own fundraising effort by distributing pre-addressed envelopes through the library branches. Patrons may donate any amount they want and designate where they'd like the money to go.

"We will credit whatever library they designate," Fujio said. "We're trying to keep the libraries open, although we will have reduced hours at many of them."

There isn't a goal, per se, but Fujio said that the more than $6 million cut in the library system's budget is what has led to the potential curtailing of hours and intermittent closures at some understaffed libraries.

In July, state Librarian Richard Burns presented a plan to the Board of Education that would have closed five libraries in rural and Neighbor Island communities in response to the cuts. Last week, Burns offered a different plan that called for some library branches to close intermittently and service hours to be cut back, but no libraries would be closed.

Garrett Toguchi, BOE chairman, praised the efforts of the Friends and the Library system to raise funds to preserve the libraries.

"It's really not asking a lot of money from people," Toguchi said. "Whatever it is that you can contribute would be very helpful, and hopefully that will resonate with corporations and foundations and lead to some bigger donations."

Toguchi said the fundraising drives are similar to the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association's "Save our Sports" program, which was launched this summer in response to an announced 36.4 percent budget cut to public school athletics for the 2009-10 school year.

He said while high school sports are higher profile than libraries, just about everyone uses or knows someone who relies on the public library system.

"While a lot of people may not use the library system, I'm sure they are connected with other people who do use it or benefit from it," Toguchi said. "Everybody who has kids, they're probably using the libraries. People who are unemployed now are using libraries because they don't have Internet access at home and are using the libraries a lot to do their resumes and also to send in their applications for job prospects. You have the typical people who are lifelong learners, you have researchers, special-interest groups."