Hey, there! Log in / Register

Boston Public Library looking at closing branches, cutting hours

Nathan Spencer livetweeted a BPL trustee meeting at the BPL main branch this morning at which officials sounded dire warnings about the fiscal year starting July 1.

"We are broke," BPL Trustee Chairman Jeffrey Rudman said. The system is looking at a $3.6-million budget hole for the coming year, Rudman said.

At a meeting attended by only five of the library system's nine trustees, trustees discussed options ranging from closing many branches one to three days a week to simply shutting up to eight of the city's 26 neighborhood libraries. Other possibilities would include closing off some desks where people get help at the Copley main branch and shuttering libraries on Sundays before Monday holidays. Trustees say they have already tried to cut personnel expenses but are now running so shortstaffed that some branches experience "brownouts" because they don't have enough workers for them on some days.

Trustees said they would make a final decision in late March or early April after public meetings. The next meeting is March 9 at the BPL main branch.

Draft BPL budget - lays out the issues in more details (but does not name specific neighborhood branches).

BPL budget page.

Neighborhoods: 
Free tagging: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

I wonder if the Menino Wing at the Hyde Park branch library will get closed down three days per week due to the budget cuts?

Yeah, right.

up
Voting closed 0

You mean the addition that Mumbles had no idea was being named after him?

up
Voting closed 0

I love my East Boston branch, and I would be so sad to see it go. I use it at least once a week (if not more often). Any idea how/when they'll determine the losing branches?

up
Voting closed 0

paging Mr. Zak....

up
Voting closed 0

We have a nice old branch library with some great librarians. It really is one of the great joys (or compensations) of living in this neighborhood.

The schools are steadily degraded, and now this. I am not going to beg for money this year, it's just a way for these guys to get us all to look at them. The stimulus bill from last year allowed Menino to paper over the problems in the city and get re-elected. A real plan for the city would offer a way to make enough money to support all these services. Plans around here though are nothing more than innovative strategies for grovelling.

up
Voting closed 0

Thanks again, Adam, for featuring BPL news on your site. We're trying to get the word out and be as transparent as possible, so the mention and links to our budget page really help.

I do want to clarify a couple things, though.

  • The reduction of children's room hours is already in place. The plans for the Central Library just mention continuing the current schedule. And just to be clear, this is only a reduction of children's room hours at Central.
  • We're not considering closing any entrances to the Central Library. I think something may have been lost in Twitter translation regarding a potential reduction of service points at Central. The idea is that currently, we have 20 places that patrons visit for assistance of one sort or another. We may reduce that number to 14. So, if you came in with two questions that would normally be answered at two different desks, you may in the future visit only one desk to have both questions answered.

Don't hesitate to visit http://www.bpl.org/budget to submit ideas, feedback, or questions. You may also write [email protected] directly.

Scot Colford
Web Services Manager
Boston Public Library

up
Voting closed 0

Fixed the post to reflect that.

up
Voting closed 0

Intellectual freedom NOT! Boston Public Library denies access to the public comments on our library's Compass web page at http://bpl.org/compass/

up
Voting closed 0

The fickle pissant librarian talks intellectual freedom but doesn't put it into practice with library users.

The fickle pissant librarian bureaucratizes even the tiniest of librarusers' transactions.

The fickle pissant librarian asks for library praise while denying critical feedback about the lib.

The fickle pissant librarian is an expert on libraries and doesn't need to even think about what library improvements library users have on their minds.

up
Voting closed 0

Would that be the wicked son or the simple son?

up
Voting closed 0

That would be a great name for a neighborhood pub.

up
Voting closed 0

The deli next door could be called The Pickle Fissant.

up
Voting closed 0

I seriously would.

up
Voting closed 0

We need a national economic study of our public libraries not biased by publishing professionals, not biased by library professionals.

A method like System Dynamics could be used,
see also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_dynamics
or
http://sdg.scripts.mit.edu/

up
Voting closed 0