- The library: a recession sanctuary?
- Nutter should get credit where credit's due
- Thursday Counter-Protest at "We Stand with Israel" Rally
- This Saturday: hearing of Mayor's Task force on Ethics
- Why do we fund this?
- ABC debuts "Homeland Security USA"
- Library Closings: They Have Never Really Been About The Budget Crisis
- DA's Job to Prosecute Environmental Crime
- Is the number of branch libraries in Philly significantly out of line with cities of comparable size?
- Nutter Doesn't Have to Follow the Law says Seventy
City Releases Library Information to City Council
Submitted by Dan U-A on Tue, 11/18/2008 - 11:15am.
So, yesterday the Mayor's office decided that the super secret rationale for "right-sizing" our libraries and pools and fire departments shouldn't be so secret.
In an inch-thick binder, Chief of Staff Clay Armbrister provided figures showing Philadelphia has more libraries per capita than all other top 10 cities and would remain first in libraries even after closing more than a fifth of its 54.
Siobhan Reardon, president and director of the Free Library of Philadelphia, told Council that it was her idea to shrink the library system to provide better service at existing libraries with fewer resources.
......
The decision on which libraries to close was based on how many people were served, afterschool program attendance, building size, and annual visits, Reardon said.
The administration argues that the closures are appropriate even without a budget crisis. Armbrister left little room for keeping libraries open, while leaving open the possibility of preserving public pools through private donations.
Even when releasing the information, this administration seems to get more ridiculous by the day. So now, after the Mayor saying it would break his heart or something, the budget crisis just gives us a nice opportunity to shutter libraries that should be closed anyway?
I seriously cannot wait until the city-wide Hawaiian shirt day. Those shirts are really festive.
Council's reaction to the presentation was mixed, though most members were gratified to get something they could sink their teeth into.
That is nice. Now how about letting the public see it. Are the rationales online?
And, I really think Jim Kenney is one of the more thoughtful members of City Council, but...
"You have people who want to grumble and to grandstand, but when I look at it, I think they worked extremely hard and were extremely thorough in their examination," Kenney said. "Anyone who's got a complaint about it should come up with another idea or ideas."
Come on. How in the world would anyone even know whether that statement is true, when so much has been done in secret? Maybe they have been thoughtful, but even if so, they have no one to blame for this outcry but themselves. When you conduct the people's business in secret, that is what happens.
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The choice of libraries is flawed
You can't simply measure library usage from a static number. You have to take trends in usage into account as Rep. Cohen rightly points out. The trend for usage is decreasing usage in prosperous areas with lots of broadband at home and increasing in poorer areas with less broadband at home. But if you look at a static number then smaller libraries out in the neighborhoods will show less traffic simply because they are smaller (less books in the first place equals less traffic, even if its trend is rapidly increasing), because like in schools, good librarians gravitate away from libraries where everything is always broken/in crisis - so like in the schools its stupid to punish branches where the need is most because well the need is most. Its sort of the bad side of No Child Left Behind again for libraries. Its important to consider with the failure of Wireless Philadlephia, the Free Library plays a crucial role in bridging the digital divide and things like looking for a job are more and more dependent on internet access these days.
It also doesn't sound like a really sound approach to geographic distribution was considered. I've said it before and yes its my branch but if you look at a map, closing Kingsessing and Eastwick means geographic distribution is way, way unfairly underserved in SW Philly. The gap left by Durham around Mantua, Belmont, Parkside also seems noticeably geographically out of whack.
Third, some consideration, not just terms of aftershool programs currently but also the capacity for branches to serve that function has to be considered. Also the feasability of actually selling. Again its my branch so I know it well but Kingsessing is a largeish, ornate historical branch given to the city by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. It has that a condition of its gift to the city that it should remain a library forever literally carved in stone on the building. It sits in the middle of Rec Center land. Its not a piece of land the city realistically could ever sell for another use and it would be disgrace to the gift Carnegie gave the city. Some issues like this must be brought into consideration, realistically
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.