Rhode Island's Adams Memorial Library says actor Alec Baldwin called and offered to donate $10,000 after learning how hard it was hit by budget cuts.

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Jerauld Adams, chairman of the library's board of trustees, told The Providence (R.I.) Journal he was working the front desk at the Central Falls book-lender when Baldwin called.

"I'm very interested in what you're doing, and I'm very interested in helping out," Adams quoted Baldwin as saying. "I'd like to give you $10,000."

Adams said he was shocked, but replied, "We would really like that."

Baldwin, star of TV's "30 Rock" as well as the films "Beetlejuice," "The Departed" and "Outside Providence," told Adams he read a story in The New York Times about how several library staff members had been fired and the hours of operation had been shortened as part of recent cost-saving measures.

The Journal said the library building, which is more than a century old, is owned by a private trust and its operating costs covered by the city, which filed for bankruptcy Aug. 1.

Volunteers are now manning the checkout and reference desks three days a week, the newspaper said.

The Journal said it was unable to reach Baldwin's publicist for a comment on its story.