Not About The Buildings
Statements
Matthew Lawrence, webmaster:
When I heard about the potential closing of six library branches in Providence, I was speechless. To imagine that the second-largest city in New England could get by with only four libraries seems impossible; could this really happen in a city that's trying to attract residents and businesses? In a city of learning, with no less than seven college campuses?
Of course, things are more complicated than that. The city doesn't actually run the libraries, for one thing. Also the library's track record has been flawed for a while now, with cutbacks of staff in 2004 and hours in 2005. I wasn't even aware when I started this project that the Washington Park branch on Broad Street had already closed, or that this wasn't the first time the Library Trustees tried to close six branches. (It happened once before, in 1992.)
If you'd like to learn more about the Providence Public Library administration, there are now a number of sources. There have recently been a plethora of articles and editorials in the Journal, the Phoenix, and the Agenda that detail the library's misguided moves. There is also the Library Reform Group, a group of concerned citizens who do a great job pressuring the library to right itself (or at the very least to provide an explanation WHY they make the decisions they make). Also, you can go into almost any neighborhood library and ask aroundlibrarians, kids and parents alike are all baffled by what's going on. Yet the administration clearly doesn't care about its branches or its patrons. Two months ago there were pages at the library's website which detailed the history and special collections at each branch. Now even those have been deleted.
Clearly something must be done. It is time for citizens to speak out. This website might seem like a strange idea, since I'm not trained in web design (or even in photography, for that matter.) Also, I was not personally threatened by any of the library's proposed cutbacks this spring. I am literate, have no children, and English is my first (and only) language. Additionally, I get my books downtown and at Mount Pleasant, neither of which was on the list of endangered branches. However, to sit back and watch the closure of six branches--six busy branches in six poor neighborhoods of a poor city!--was impossible.
For the moment the libraries are saved. Smith Hill and Knight
Memorial still aren't air-conditioned, and most libraries--even
the central one--are only open past dinnertime one or two nights a
week. But none of them are closing for at least a year, and now the city
and the library are taking the first steps at working out their differences.
Over the course of this summer I've met a lot of great library patrons
who are genuinely concerned about their neighborhood libraries. Now
that there's no immediate danger, the worst thing that could happen
would be for the public to forget this issue. People need to continue
to pressure the library administration; if they are going to run a
public library, then they need to actually serve the public.
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