Proposed Library Budget Cuts threaten to Dismember Brooklyn Public Library System

This has been an important issue on the dock, but not one that has drawn alot of headlines. Due to the tough economic times (and the rather stupid way our local government banks entirely on the success of Wall Street) every piece of budget is getting slashed. But New York’s Public Libraries are already woefully underfunded. Despite the fact that library use always increases in an economic downturn, the city is still trying to cut the Public Library’s budget by 22%. Vincent Gentile (who chairs the City Council’s sub-committee on libraries), a number of other city councilmembers, community activists and library union leaders held a rally to protest the cuts. The library journal did a terrific job of reporting it.

“Rough economic times are going to require some tough choices,” Gentile said, but that “only makes libraries more important. We make the tough choices but we make the tough choices in favor of libraries.” He told LJ he was “fully confident” part of the proposed budget cut would be reversed and “more and more confident” a full reversal was possible.

If the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) absorbs the full $17.5 million cut, it would have to eliminate nearly 25% of its full-time work force, cutting as many as 272 positions through a combination of layoffs and attrition, according prepared testimony from executive director Dionne Mack-Harvin. The part-time workforce would be cut by half, eliminating 250 more jobs.

Service would be cut nearly in half, to 25 hours per week, with six-day service only at two of 60 facilities. The materials budget would be cut almost 40%, meaning that 180,000 fewer books would be purchased. The cut, she said, would “create holes in our collection that will take years to fill.”

The cuts in the operating budget compound a 30% cut to BPL’s capital budget this year, which came after a 20% deferral imposed last year.

“As we approach the 2010 fiscal year, the stakes could not be higher,” Mack-Harvin said, noting the well-documented increase in library use. She brought with her Elizabeth Condon, a student in BPL’s Adult Literacy Program, to testify about how the library has helped her.

(Note that the library directors in their testimony cited the cut as 21%; LJ has reported 22%, according to p. 17 of New York City’s Financial Plan summary [PDF].)

UPDATE!!! sign the petition to save new york city’s public libraries here
Online petition – Save NYC Public Libraries

*****UPDATE******* A MILLION THANKS TO ALL WHO GOT INVOLVED. NEWS JUST CAME IN THAT THE BUDGET FOR NEW YORK’S PUBLIC LIBRARIES HAS BEEN RESTORED. YOUR EFFORTS IN CALLING AND WRITING ANYONE YOU COULD IS TESTAMENT TO JUST HOW MUCH PUBLIC LIBRARIES MEAN TO OUR COMMUNITY.