Will Buffalo System Finally Close Branches?

-- Library Journal, 1/3/2005

Given the recent cuts to the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library (BECPL), NY, which also include a 14% cut in personnel, the debate has resumed about whether the 52-branch system is simply too large. "Five years ago, the community wasn't ready for this," Library Director Michael C. Mahaney told the Buffalo News. "But the community can't afford to keep this many doors open." In 2000, community resistance scotched a consolidation plan that would have closed 22 branches. Said County Executive Joel A. Giambra, "We need to spend this year figuring out which branches we need to close. This budget crisis is not going to disappear." He will offer at least $2.5 million to any community that will close two or more branches and replace them with one branch. BECPL already has a plan to close two branches in the city and build a new one. The system, which encompasses a very large geographic area, has many more branches than most systems serving comparable populations.