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Libraries Warn of More Closings

This article provoked zero comments from newspaper readers. One can wonder if Wall Street Journal readers have an inkling of the importance of public libraries and how devastating this cutback of services will be.

Bloomberg Proposes Cutting 740 Jobs; City Systems See Greater Losses for Branches, Operating Hours

By Joseph de Avila and Pia Catton

City libraries face another round of severe cutbacks under the new budget, which library officials said could result in more than 1,400 jobs lost, dozens of branch closures and other major service reductions.

According to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed budget, library systems across the five boroughs would see a $31.2 million reduction in their annual subsidy and a loss of 740 jobs covered by city-funded subsidies.

Across the board, that would be an 11.3% reduction, with the Manhattan and Brooklyn libraries seeing the biggest cuts totaling $11.6 million each. How to absorb the cuts was left up to the library systems.

But leaders of the city's individual library systems said the proposed cuts were actually far larger because the mayor's figures don't include cuts previously proposed by the administration for the new fiscal year and because of other budgetary factors.

"It will devastate the system," said Dionne Mack-Harvin, executive director of the Brooklyn Public Library.

Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna said the mayor's proposals reflected needed cuts after reductions in state aid, "What we rolled out today are cuts of those amounts," he said.

Even so, the New York Public Library, which serves the Bronx, Staten Island and Manhattan, said it faces a $37 million cut under the mayor's proposal. That would represent about a 25% cut in the department's budget, which could mean about 740 layoffs in the three boroughs, it said.

If funds aren't restored, the library system said it would have to shut 10 branches and reduce service to four days a week. "What's at stake is the welfare of New Yorkers," said Paul LeClerc, president and chief executive of the New York Public Library.

The Queens Library calculated its reduction under the Bloomberg proposal at $16.9 million, a 17% budget decrease. It said potential layoffs could affect 412 full-time employees, as well as in closing 14 libraries and opening others only two or three days a week.

The director of the Queens system, Thomas Galante, said his organization is doing its best to deal with funding decreases without layoffs. "If these cuts go through, we have no other choice," he said.

"Anyone who loves libraries and anyone has spent their adult lives working in libraries like I have is very upset about it," said Council member Jimmy Van Bramer of Queens, chairman of the committee for libraries and international intergroup relations.

"However, if the state can adopt a budget and that budget is not detrimental to New York, my hope is that we can avert some of the most far-reaching consequences, at least with regards towards libraries."

The Brooklyn Public Library said it would have to lay off at least 300 employees due to a $20 million funding cut, a representative said. In jeopardy are 16 branches and weekend operating hours.

Job training and literacy programs also would take a big hit, Ms. Mack-Harvin said. Currently, the programs at the Brooklyn Public Library serve about 900,000 people.

The funding cuts would reduce that number by a third, she said.

"People have come to depend on us to provide those kinds of services," Ms. Mack-Harvin said.

There are a total of 214 libraries in New York City.

— Joseph de Avila and Pia Catton
Wall Street Journal
2010-05-07
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704370704575228842136231512.html?mod=djemITP_h

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