Library Closings

Every once and awhile I have time to peruse the Library Journal's site. They usually have pretty great articles about whats going on with libraries and librarians across the US.

Today, two caught my eye, and both are about library systems closings. Chicago and Detroit have both been struggling with budget cuts (much like Philadelphia), and had to make the difficult decision to shutter branches.

In Detroit, the shutting of 4 branches was actually decided by the library system, in order to preserve its current staff of librarians who had been working in mulitple locations and with longer hours in order to keep the branches open after layoffs. Luckily, the new closures won't result in new layoffs.

But in Chicago, the budget for the library system was reduced by $8 million, which will lead to about 180 layoffs - a pretty big number.

It's pretty amazing the amount and size of layoffs in the teaching and librarianship sectors recently. Unfortunately, librarians aren't seen as "necessary" like teachers are, and their axed positions rarely come back (much unlike teaching positions). That's part of the struggle in Philadelphia right now - librarians were laid off in the 70's and 80's, but they were never recalled, leading to the problems we see today in Philadelphia's school libraries.

Unfortunately, the budget crises in most cities means that school librarians, and shuttered library branches won't be coming back any time soon. City governments aren't suddenly going to see the value in the school libraries, or be able to generate funds from mid-air for their creation.

So what can we do about it? This is a question that I'm still mulling, but here are some initial thoughts:

1. Hold book drives for a local school.
2. Contact private or charter school librarians to see if they have extra books.
3. Contact local library branches about extra books.
4. Create a "Friends of xxx School Library" much the same way that organizations supporting library branches have been created.


Changing these problems just requires someone - anyone - to get involved.

The Books by the Numbers

This is the introduction to a series of posts that will examine the statistics and facts surrounding the state of libraries and literacy in both Philadelphia and the nation as a whole. I intend to give readers a sense of the environment that surrounds the challenges and work that Library Build does. Occasionally (particularly today) I will go beyond the facts to examine the attitudes that Americans hold with respect to these issues.

Two evenings ago, our local Fox News affiliate, Fox 29, did an expose-styled report on the costs of Philadelphia’s Free Library – with the catchy title, “Is the Free Library Really So Free?”

Well of course the Free Library is not free, just like public education is not really free. We all pay taxes so that everyone can enjoy a basic standard of living, and that is supposed to include a basic standard of education – of which a library is a basic necessity.

Fox Philly’s report stated that the Free Library’s 54 branches cost the City of Philadelphia a total of $33 million a year. The question posed by the report was: Should the City of Philadelphia be spending $33 million a year on libraries given the current budget crisis and public debt situation?

Well, $33 million isn’t so much when compared to the city’s other expenses. In 2004 the new Citizens Bank Park was opened for the Philadelphia Phillies – and the city of Philadelphia paid for half of the costs of construction. That comes to $229 million. In 2000, Philadelphia agreed to chip in nearly $100 million for the Eagle’s new Lincoln Financial Field.

This year, once again, the Welcome America Fourth of July celebrations, including a parade and two fireworks shows, will be taking place over eleven days. The state of Pennsylvania refused its annual gift of $500,000 to $1 million to the parade, citing that there was no money in the state budget. But that leaves the city of Philadelphia to pay for the rest: “The [Philadelphia] administration later reassessed its decision, and it concluded it should in fact financially support Welcome America because ‘all eyes are on our city on the Fourth of July to see how America's birthplace is celebrating America's birthday,’ [Philadelphia city spokesman] Oliver said. ‘That's no small thing’.”

Is it a small thing that in the birthplace of America there is a 50% drop out rate among high school students?

This isn’t to say that events like parades, celebrations, or sports games should be cut from the budget. But if our local news media wants to talk about cutting access to a basic of American life – the library – shouldn’t we also discuss how much the city is spending on entertainment? Sure entertainment increases quality of life in Philadelphia. But education and literacy increases that quality of life more than tenfold over entertainment. Without an education, and without literacy, we doom students to a life of uncertainty and almost assuredly, poverty.

Oh, and as for the argument made in the report that, "Libraries aren't in the Constitution and therefore shouldn't be publicly funded," well, neither can public fire departments, public garbage collection, public parking garages, or, of course, NFL stadiums be found in the Constitution...

“Welcome America to get City Services Gratis” http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20100610_Welcome_America_to_get_city_services_gratis.html#ixzz0sRMq3cFp

“Is the Free Library Really so Free?” http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/is-the-free-library-really-so-.-.-.free%3F

Citizens Bank Park Stats: http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/nl/CitizensBankPark.htm

Lincoln Financial Field Stats: http://www.billhance.com/football/Linc/LincMainPage.htm