BPL
People of Boston Branches will hold a "sun-in" starting at 11 a.m. tomorrow in front of the BPL main branch in Copley Square:
Read, chat with your neighbors about their branch, about the library issue, and soak in the sun. No speakers, no organization. Just show up. The end time is 12:00PM, but it can go all day for all we care.
Members of branch-library friends groups have started a citywide organization to push for enough funding to keep all 26 BPL branches open.
People of Boston Branches was formally organized at a meeting last night at the Connolly library in Jamaica Plain, according to Brandon Abbs, who organized a protest read-in at the Egleston branch on Saturday.
Abbs said in the short term, the group will support an effort by city councilors Chuck Turner and Felix Arroyo to use $3.6 million from a city reserve fund to make up an anticipated deficit that Mayor Tom Menino and library officials say will force the closing of up to ten branch libraries. The group will also fight for more public hearings on the issue; Abbs said group members are concerned about all the private meetings city and state officials are holding on branches without public input. He added the group will "also organize resistance to the tax breaks being offered to Liberty Mutual Group to build new headquarters in downtown Boston."
Abbs said the group will also try to get the city and state to apply for federal stimulus funds for library use. "Over the long term, the group will begin fundraising efforts to protect and enhance branch resources as well as help the Friends organize volunteer programs to assist in the work at the libraries," he said.
Twitter feed.
Friends of the Friends of the Egleston Square Branch Library will hold a rally at noon tomorrow to support the city's branch libraries and demand none be closed as a way to bridge the $3.6-million budget deficit BPL officials say they face.
The Jamaica Plain Gazette quotes city Councilor John Tobin on BPL officials: "They've said they don't have a list [of branches to close]. Of course they have a list."
The Gazette has more on Tuesday's hearing on BPL finances.
Form letter in support of the North End branch.
The youngest library supporter: Paul Facklam, 4, and his dad
opposed the closing of the Roslindale branch
#bpl2010 - Twitter comments.
Addressing an angry if generally polite crowd of several hundred people at a budget hearing today, BPL trustees Chairman Jeffrey Rudman said that even in an ideal world, the nation's oldest public-library system simply has too many competing demands to address.
And this is far from an ideal world, Rudman said: The BPL faces a $3.6 million deficit in the coming fiscal year. "The arithmetic is the arithmetic, you can't do very much with it," he said. Read more
I'm tweeting away from the Rabb Hall hearing here. Nathan Spencer is also covering.
With BPL trustees meeting Tuesday to discuss how to start closing neighborhood branches, patrons are organizing to keep that from happening:
Kelly Young writes a letter in support of the Roslindale branch: Read more
The Globe reports. No specific locations mentioned. The BPL board of trustees will meet next Tuesday (3 p.m., Rabb Hall at the main branch in Copley Square) to begin discussing how to decide which of 8 to 10 branch libraries to close.
Candelaria Silva cannot believe the Boston Public Library is looking at major cuts to branches; notes BPL trustees hold a meeting on proposed cuts on Tuesday, March 9 at 3 p.m. in the Copley main branch.
BPL officials have yet to publish a list of neighborhood libraries they would shut if they can't come up with enough money for the next fiscal year, but the Jamaica Plain Gazette reports officials in JP worry their library would be top of the list.
Turn down the bleepin' heat at the Copley main branch, Iseut says:
... I visited the Copley branch today to see the wonderful Man on the Street photo exhibit (free!) and another on Poe (free!) which I couldn't peruse as carefully as I would have liked because I thought I would pass out it was so bleeping hot in there. Seriously, it was ridiculously hot - which in a public building is fiscally irresponsible. ...
Meanwhile, City Council President Mike Ross vows to fight "devastating" cuts until BPL officials have proven they have squeezed every last dime first:
... I met with BPL President Amy Ryan yesterday, and I told her I would only consider brown-outs or library closings once the Council has seen that every other cost-cutting measure has been taken. This means a top-to-bottom review of the library's finances, from personnel expenses to the cost of energy for our libraries. ...
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. Read more
The Boston Public Library is trying to plan out the next ten years and is holding a series of meetings - and posting to a new blog - to solicit public input.
BPL officials will hold "community conversations" Tues., Jan. 5 at at the Mattapan branch library, Thurs., Jan. 7 at the Hyde Park branch and Mon., Jan. 11 at the South Boston branch on its "BPL Compass" planning. All three sessions start at 6 p.m.
The BPL Compass blog has started looking at some of the issues the city's library system expects to face.
Brr
Schuyler Ortega captured the frozen moment outside the BPL main branch in Copley Square.
Copyright Schuyler Ortega. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.
Iceburns captures the lions inside the old wing of the BPL main branch in Copley Square.
Copyright Iceburns.
Friends of the Jamaica Plain Branch Library report their favorite branch has been Number 1 in circulation among BPL branches for the past four months.
The Boston Public Library is doing something very cool: They're posting photos from their collections on Flickr. They've already got several collections up, from Boston stereographs to baseball photos to postcards from across New England.
The only problem is the whole thing is like a giant vat of popcorn - you just can't stop eating, flicking from one photo to the next. I'm particularly fascinated by the postcards of old Boston, because they show how the city has changed - sometimes pretty dramatically, as on this postcard of a pre-Storrow Esplanade down by the "West Boston Bridge" (what we'd call the Longfellow). There are long-gone hotels and restaurants; hotels and car dealerships that are now BU dorms, even a huge Gulf "Super Service" station right on Beacon Street in Coolidge Corner (OK, not Boston, but still), where this Town Taxi might have filled up.
The Bulletin reports the Roslindale BPL branch will be closed between Jan. 5 and 20 so its old oil burner can be replaced with a new gas furnace.
Boston Police report at least three patrons of the BPL West Roxbury branch have had purses snatched in recent days:
All three reports state that the individuals were sitting at a table in the facility with their bags at their feet.
Karin, who loves the Bates Reading Room at the BPL main branch, admits to scoping out the male patrons there and even fantasizing about picking one of them up:
... I have no idea how this would actually work. The silence discourages conversation. There's no way to banter via computer (a la Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy's characters in Pretty in Pink, which, speaking of, how the hell did that ever work?). Most folks wear sweatpants and scarves with bed-head and are probably stressing a 20-page brief for Monday's Con Law class.
However, there's something sexy to me about intelligence and academia and those in it who might love this space as much as I do. ...
Scot, who works at the main branch, reads Karin's post:
... Got me thinking about how differently her experience would be if we had online communities on the library web site. As Web Services Manager for the Boston Public Library, its something I think we really need, but I sure hadn't considered the direct user interaction she's got in mind! Maybe we need to provide chat rooms too. ...
BostonZest reminds us that the Boston Public Library's food-for-fines program (every can of food you bring in for donation to local food pantries wipes $2 off whatever fines you owe) ends when the libraries close this Saturday.
This one's right up Don's (the zak) alley. As reported in The Globe:
"Just as the Yankees took Babe Ruth, Boston's loss is our gain," said Tom Dunn, New York education department spokesman. "We are thrilled."
Bernard Margolis, the former head of the Boston Public Library, has gone head-to-head with the Menino administration since he was removed over his management style which Menino felt left the community branches disadvantaged at the expense of the Copley head branch. He will now be leading one of the nation's largest research libraries by running the NY State libraries.
More