PROVIDENCE – The Providence Public Library Board of Trustees has voted to shutter five of the library’s nine branches next summer, arguing that doing so is the best way of creating a “sustainable library system.”
Under the proposal approved yesterday, the PPL’s Fox Point, Smith Hill, Olneyville, Wanskuck and Washington Park locations would cease to operate as library branches as of June 30. (The library’s Washington Park branch closed for renovations in 2006 and has yet to reopen.)
Instead, the five branches might become “City- or community-owned and operated Neighborhood Learning Centers” for after-school activities and public computer access, the PPL board said. The PPL might donate the use of the five buildings, books and computers and staff members to aid in the switchover, the trustees added.
Discussions with the city about how to convert the branches into learning centers already have begun, library officials said.
“We want to make it very clear that the proposal for Central and four branches does not mean there will be a loss of access at the other facilities,” Robert K. Taylor, chairman of the Library Sustainability Committee, said in a statement.
“While they will not be PPL branches, the buildings can be donated to the city or community. They can still be utilized for community gathering places. The books and computers will still be there, and we are working to secure ongoing Internet access and library book circulation.”
In addition to the spin-off of the five branches, hours of operation would be scaled back at the Central Branch on Empire Street, from 53 hours per week to 42. Hours would not change at the remaining four branches: Rochambeau, Knight Memorial, Mt. Pleasant and South Providence.
“We thought long and hard about how to design a system that was financially sustainable and continued to provide quality library services for as many users as possible,” Taylor said. “That meant making some very difficult decisions, looking at creative options and working with existing and new partners in the community.”
Library officials said the proposal approved yesterday would maintain 81 percent of “current library usage” and preserve access to much of its collection. An estimated 1 million people visit the library every year, according to the PPL’s annual report.
The Providence Public Library provides library services to city residents, but is run by a private nonprofit association, rather than the city government.
After years of argument over funding levels, the library board of trustees and Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline this year signed an agreement in which the PPL agreed to provide $1.4 million to cover an operating deficit in the current fiscal year. (READ MORE) The board projects that deficit will grow to $2 million in 2009.
The agreement also called for the trustees to come up with a plan, by the end of this month, for how to change library operations to make them “sustainable.” The city now has until June 30 to decide whether to adopt the library’s plan or seek a different solution.
The trustees yesterday voted 10-to-1 in favor of the plan, with Kas DeCarvalho – Cicilline’s representative to the library board – abstaining.
The lone dissenting vote was cast by Mark McKinney, who is Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s representative to the library board of trustees and chairman of the state library board.
UPDATE: In a statement this afternoon, Mayor Cicilline declared that, “as I have made clear for many years, I am opposed to any plan that reduces the presence of library services in our neighborhoods.” He added that city officials had never expressed support for the PPL’s Neighborhood Learning Center plan, under which the City of Providence would take over the cost of operating the five facilities after they ceased to function as library branches.
“I understand the financial difficulty of administering a large public institution, especially in these times,” Cicilline said, “but it is critical that we uphold the 100-year-old mission of the Providence Public Library, for today and for the future.”
In an interview this morning with Providence Business News, McKinney said that, although he respects the point of view of the other trustees, “closing down five branches wasn’t the kind of bold, creative action” he had hoped they would consider.
“In my view, if I live in the Wanskuck section of Providence and somebody talks about closing my library, then to me that’s the library – and if we were the board of the Wanskuck branch, we would be fighting tooth and nail to save it,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to sit in a room [in the Central Branch] on Empire Street and close down five branches.”
Instead, McKinney suggested the trustees should examine the possibility of selling the 150,000-square-foot downtown Central Branch, which he suggested could fetch up to $13 million even in a weak real estate market. He noted that the number of visitors at Empire Street has fallen precipitously in recent years, from 441,000 in 2003 to about 356,000 this year. By contrast, the much smaller Rochambeau branch, on the East Side, had nearly 250,000 visitors last year.
The trustees could use the proceeds from selling the Empire Street building to build a new flagship branch, perhaps on the large parcel of land where the Knight Memorial branch is currently located, McKinney said.
McKinney said he would like to see Providence put a renewed focus on the branch libraries, similar to efforts by Mayor Richard Daley in Chicago.
Community activists, many of whom have long been critical of the library’s leadership, also criticized the trustees’ plan.
The Library Reform Group – a patrons group that has lobbied to overhaul the library’s administration and maintain the branch system – issued a statement saying that it “emphatically rejects PPL’s plan.”
“A severe reduction of library services to neighborhoods throughout Providence will greatly affect the quality of life and social fabric of our city,” Marcus Mitchell, one of the group’s members, said in a statement. “Our children, our seniors, job seekers, our students and the administration of scores of programs will be adversely affected.”
The Library Reform Group says it has formed a new nonprofit organization, called Providence Community Library, that could maintain library operations without shuttering branches.
It called on the city to transfer its share of library funding to the new group. “We have shown our proposal to urban library directors in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, who have concluded that our plan is feasible,” the group’s statement said.
State Rep. David Segal, D-Providence, who has supported the Library Reform Group’s goals, called the PPL trustees’ decision “a big move,” adding that “it certainly appears that this is the year that things finally, fundamentally change [within the library system], for better or worse.”
In a separate action yesterday, the PPL board of trustees also voted to freeze employee pensions effective June 30.
All Providence Public Library locations are closed today in anticipation of the snowstorm.
The Providence Public Library is a 130-year-old private, nonprofit organization that serves as a public library for the City of Providence, providing free information resources, education and community services. It also operates the Statewide Reference Resource Center, serving all Rhode Islanders with educational, cultural enrichment and economic advancement opportunities. To learn more, visit www.provlib.org.
