The Richmond Library
WILL BE CLOSED
This Saturday,
March 7th 2009
Sorry for any inconvenience
^Signage posted at said Library Branch^
Note:
The Fishtown Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia was closed on February 21, 2009 in order to cover staff shortages at other branches in the city.
More Library News (State Level):
Rendell: Staff cut at library in error
He said his budget proposal mistakenly indicated a 90% reduction at the State Library, not the real 50%
HARRISBURG - Apparently, doomsday has not arrived at the historic Pennsylvania State Library.
In his February budget address, Gov. Rendell proposed chopping library funding in half, from $4.84 million to $2.39 million, a steep cut in a lean budget laden with across-the-board reductions.
But yesterday, Rendell said a figure published in his budget proposal that projected a 90 percent staffing reduction was wrong.
Rendell said he would never allow staffing to get to the point where the library would have to close.
He said the library's 50 percent cut would mean a similar staff cut - from 56 to about 28 employees. But more jobs could be preserved if savings can be found in other areas, said his spokesman, Chuck Ardo.
One of Pennsylvania's four major research libraries, the state library was founded in 1745 by Benjamin Franklin. Across the street from the Capitol, it houses the state law and education libraries, and has one of the largest newspaper collections in the country.
State Librarian Clare Zales said she was assessing the role of the library with the goal of trying to balance materials preservation and access.
Nevertheless, she said, with fewer employees, hours and services will be reduced.
Library advocates say there is little doubt the cuts will have a "negative impact" on services such as interlibrary loans and research requests.
"It's not an operation loaded with people sitting around doing nothing," said Glenn Miller, executive director of the Pennsylvania Library Association. He said the smaller cuts would be "clearly a step in the right direction, and we welcome it."
As to the budget book figure, Ardo said, "We are trying to determine exactly where that number originated and how it got into the book."
Reported by Amy Worden (Harrisburg Bureau)
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Update: Letter To The Editor
Library help
Public-education champion Gov. Rendell may be "committed to libraries," but not in any positive sense.
Pennsylvania public libraries now rank 38th nationally in per-capita funding, a decrease from the 36th- percentile ranking that horrified Philadelphians and the nation when The Inquirer wrote about it in 1998. The "fiscal reality" is that Pennsylvania libraries continue to trend downward, experiencing cut after cut. Will Pennsylvania's governor count himself as an advocate when Pennsylvania is at rock bottom?
It is tragic how Pennsylvania's elected officials continue to starve this most important legacy of Benjamin Franklin, this most democratic American institution of them all, our much-needed, much-utilized public libraries.
Anne Minicozzi
Trustee, Radnor Memorial Library
published Sunday, March 8, 2009
The Philadelphia Inquirer
page C4