Philadelphia Closing 11 Branches

The economic crunch is taking its toll. Eleven of 54 branches of the Free Library of Philadelphia will close, and 111 positions will be lost in what Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter called “mid-year revision of epic proportions,” an effort to cut $100 million in response to a “dramatic decline in tax collections and increased pension costs.”

The library faces a 20 percent reduction, along with recreation and parks, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Nutter, who as a city councilman earned LJ's Politician of the Year award in 2005 along with fellow councilman Frank DiCicco for protecting the library from cutbacks, defended his choices, saying, “Painful program and service cuts are necessary, but I want to assure you that we've preserved our core services.”

In a message to staff, library director Siobhan Reardon, noting that 85 percent of the budget goes to staff, said 40 jobs would be eliminated through attrition and 71 through layoffs. “A system of 43 branches will allow us to continue six-day-a-week service,” she wrote, suggesting that reductions at all branches instead “would weaken service in every neighborhood and stretch the staff to an unacceptable degree.” Sunday hours will be eliminated at three regional libraries.

Also citing “plummeting tax revenues,” San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders has proposed the temporary closure of seven of 35 branches of the San Diego Public Library to help meet a $43 million gap. While Sanders has also suggested closing recreational facilities and decreasing the budget for police and fire services, libraries appear to be losing a larger percentage, $2 million of $37 million, or 5.4 percent. The library will drop 33.81 positions, according to the mayor's report.

The Board of Library Commissioners voted unanimously to oppose Sanders's plan, noting that library circulation has increased eight percent in the last three months, a sign of the importance of library service in hard times. The library's Friends group began distributing “I Love My Library!” buttons.

[Update: Closure plans are on hold.]

New York State governor David Paterson, as part of a massive package of reductions, has proposed eliminating $20 million in library aid, a 20 percent cut. Such aid had already been reduced twice this year, from $102 million to $99 million, according to the New York Library Association (NYLA).

“I want you to get really angry, I mean really fed up with the way libraries and library systems are being treated by the State of New York,” wrote NYLA executive director Michael Borges in a message to members, noting that “no other educational institutions are being asked to bear” such measures.

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans to trim city support of the three public library systems by 2.5 percent this year and five percent next year, thus reducing library service from six days to five-and-a-half days a week.

Phoenix Public Library is also facing severe budget cuts, which may result in fewer new materials and shortened service hours. According to the Arizona Republic, the city's budget deficit is $250 million, which could result in a 30 percent reduction in the city's general fund. A final library budget proposal will be announced on January 6, followed by two weeks of community hearings, according to the newspaper.

Four library branches in Trenton, NJ, scheduled to close in November, will remain open through the end of 2009. Each branch will operate a minimum of 40 hours a week, as the Trenton Public Library (TPL) shifts staff and reduces hours at the main library.

The city still will slash the library's budget by ten percent, or $350,000. Layoffs are also expected and will affect 25 staffers, TPL director Kimberley Bray told LJ.

TPL was able to come up with this solution with help from New Jersey State Librarian Norma Blake (LJ's 2008 Librarian of the Year), who granted an exemption to the state rule that one library in a community must be open 60 hours a week. That location previously was TPL's main facility; now the rule in Trenton will be interpreted as including all locations. TPL plans to beef up private fundraising efforts.

City officials in Worcester, MA, may have to come up with a novel way to support libraries in a time of shrinking municipal budgets: ask local colleges.

The presence of several tax-exempt colleges in the city has prompted perennial debate about requiring the institutions to provide compensation for municipal services via payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs), according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Rather than simply being paid into city coffers, the funds from the colleges would go to the Worcester Public Library.

Though Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association's Washington Office, expressed optimism that President-elect Barack Obama would maintain his support for libraries, she offered a warning to LJ before the election: “No matter who wins and no matter what happens in Congress, this is going to be a very tough year.”