Smith Hill Branch Library Threatened by PPL Plan

Smith Hill Branch Library is one of five Providence branches threatened with closure in Providence Public Library’s new sustainability Plan. The following includes an open letter from the Library Reform Group and a Providence Journal article printed today, December 19, 2009. For information about how to get involved in efforts to save the Smith Hill Branch please see the Library Friends Page.

At yesterday’s PPL board meeting, the board voted to continue library operations only at Central and four branches after June 30, 2009. The Governor’s representative on the board, Mark McKenney, voted against the plan, while the Mayor’s representative (Kas DeCarvalho) abstained. All ten non-public board members who were present at yesterday’s meeting voted in favor of the proposal. The Library Reform Group emphatically rejects PPL’s plan. We have formed a new non-profit organization called Providence Community Library. We have drafted a budget, worked out staffing projections, and planned for a community-based governing body. We have shown our proposal to urban library directors in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, who have concluded that our plan is feasible. We call upon the City to transfer its funding from PPL to the Providence Community Library in order to protect library services for city residents in ALL our neighborhoods. During the Public Response period, Elaine Heeber of the Library Reform Group quoted a 2006 ProJo editorial that recommended PPL should “seriously consider giving the City of Providence any or all of its branches, while keeping its flagship facitlity on Empire Street. Then the library. . .would be able to better serve the public, and protect and even expand the major collections.” Marcus Mitchell, one of the organizers of the Providence Community Library, followed up on Elaine’s comment by reading a statement announcing the formation of the Providence Community Library and urging the City to turn the branches over to the PCL (see below). We will need your support in the weeks ahead as we work to convince the City that it is time to transfer the stewardship of our branches to a new community-based organization that will run them efficiently and responsibly–and will put the welfare of library patrons first. Patricia Marcus Mitchell’s statement:

The dilemma facing us today is the culmination of several years of processing. Unfortunately, the Providence Public Library Board appears to have assumed a position that will dramatically reduce library services to the communities of Providence.

A severe reduction of library services to neighborhoods throughout Providence will greatly affect the quality of life and social fabric of our city. Our children, our seniors, job seekers, our students and the administration of scores of programs will be adversely affected. Especially during these economic troubling times, a reduction of library services in our neighborhoods is unacceptable and not seen by the citizens as a “sustainable system”.

In anticipation of an “unacceptable reduction of services” model proposal, several community leaders, concerned citizens and community-based organizations have formed a coalition: The Providence Community Library. This entity has examined the issues of our library management and budgetary challenges: and is prepared to assume the management & administration of all 9 branches of the public library system. We will be presenting a full budget and proposal to the Mayor & City Council, and actively pursuing the City’s full support of the Providence Community Library. We disagree with PPL’s “sustainable model”, their budget projections and several management decisions.

Providence Community Library will be holding public forums and press conferences in the very near future to unveil our plans to maintain the current level of services to the neighborhoods of the city of Providence.

(Note: to contact the Providence Community Library directly, write to providencecommunitylibrary@isp.com )

New library plan would close 5 city branches

01:00 AM EST on Friday, December 19, 2008

By Philip Marcelo

Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE – Five library branches would close by July but the downtown flagship and four other branches would remain open under a plan approved by the Providence Public Library Board of Trustees yesterday.

The plan now goes before the City Council for approval and, under an agreement reached last month, the city must make one of four decisions by June 30, which is the end of the fiscal year: accept the library’s plan; seek to take over the branch libraries itself; assign their stewardship to another entity; or choose to maintain the current library system intact for one year and cover any deficits incurred.

The system, which is run by a private, nonprofit organization, assisted by payments from the city and the state, is anticipating a $1.4-million deficit this fiscal year and projecting a $2-million shortfall in the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Mayor David N. Cicilline’s administration supports the plan, but with the caveat that the five branches slated for closing — Fox Point, Smith Hill, Olneyville, Wanskuck and Washington Park — return to the city’s possession to be run as neighborhood learning centers for after-school activities, public computer access and meeting space, according to Kas DeCarvalho, the city’s representative on the library board.

The library has begun talks with the city to make that happen.

Library board member Robert Taylor said yesterday that the library has told the city it is willing to donate the branch buildings and their contents (books, computers, furnishings) to the city. Some library staff would assist with the transition to city ownership, he said. The branches that would remain open are Mount Pleasant, South Providence, Rochambeau and Knight Memorial, in Elmwood.

But library advocates and Mark McKenney, Governor Carcieri’s representative on the board, opposed the plan, which was approved by a 10-to-1 vote.

Marcus Mitchell, a member of the board of the Friends of the Rochambeau Branch Library, said that a coalition of community organizations, including his organization, have formulated a budget and organizational plan to take over and run the nine library branches with assistance from the city under a newly formed nonprofit organization, Providence Community Libraries.

“The board’s plan is unacceptable,” he said. “The library is asking the city for funding to provide library services when their plan proposes a severe reduction in service that will adversely affect the community.”

Mitchell said that the organization will submit its counterproposal to the city in the coming weeks.

The plan to shutter five library branches was one of two options presented yesterday by the board of trustees’ sustainability committee, which was to develop a plan for a library system that could be operated for the foreseeable future with the funds available to the nonprofit organization.

By keeping the heavily used central library open, the library system could preserve a large percentage of its users, according to Taylor, chairman of the sustainability committee.

The board also considered a plan that would have closed the central library and kept all nine neighborhood branches open.

The major drawbacks to that proposal are that it would not provide the same levels of services and would not result in a significant increase in operating hours at the smaller branches, which currently are open 30 hours a week. Under that plan, the downtown library would house administrative, maintenance and information technology staff until the library decided to sell the building.

“The closing of the central library represents a net loss to the city as a whole,” said Taylor. “There is a misconception that when we talk about the central branch, we are talking about a grand old building that is not being used.”

Neither of the two alternatives discussed yesterday, however, do what the board had hoped. James Nagle, of the board’s finance committee, said that the plans do not ensure that the library would not fall back into deficit three years down the line; in fact, that scenario is highly likely, given the current economy.

At yesterday’s meeting, the board also voted unanimously to freeze employee pension benefits effective next June 30.

The move means that the future pensions of any of the library’s current 110 employees will be based on their age, salary and longevity as of that date.The $5.5-million library pension system is $2 million underfunded, meaning it is short that amount to cover all its liabilities, and under federal law passed in 2007, privately held pension systems must be fully funded.

pmarcelo@projo.com