Category: Libraries

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Mark Alan Hughes is gone; Does his policy live on?

  By Libraries, Philadelphia, Taxation

Hughes has left the administration. I’ve not heard why although there is a rumor he is being blamed for Nutter’s political misteps, including the proposal to close libraries and the call for massive increases in the property tax. Closing libraries and raising the property tax to such an extent–and ruling out any increases in wage or business taxes or elimination of the tax abatement–certainly looks to be part of the Hughes strategy I criticized here a few months ago, that is, to focus city services and tax cuts on the happy half million middle class people in the city rather than on the miserable million working class and poor. Unfortunately, raising the sales tax instead of the property tax is just another way of doing the same thing as it is even more regressive than a property tax increase, especially one with a homestead exemption or circuit breaker. If Hughes… Continue reading

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Library closings: they've never been mainly about the budget crisis

  By Libraries, Philadelphia

The hard thing in making the case against closing eleven branch libraries is that the fiscal crisis of Philadelphia is not a mirage. That’s why it is important to understand that the branch library closings have never fundamentally been about the budget crisis. The Mayor and Siobhan Reardon are misleading us when they keep insisting that we had to close libraries because of the city’s budget troubles. I’m not sure I fully understand what the library closings are about. But this is what I’ve managed to piece together from talking with librarians here and elsewhere in the country as well as with people familiar with some of the inner workings of the library administration. The proposal to close branches came from the library administration The library administration has wanted to close branch libraries for years. They proposed doing so under Mayor Street, when then Councilman Nutter along with Councilman DiCicco… Continue reading

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Hallwatch faxbank on libraries

  By Libraries, Philadelphia

Ed Goppelt has graciously agreed to set up a faxbank at his hallwatch website, so that you can contact your district council member and all the at-large members in one step asking them to join the lawsuit seeking to block closure of the libraries. http://www.hallwatch.org/faxbank/save_our_libraries I’m going to spare you the hard sell. If YPP readers don’t already know why closing 11 branch libraries is a horrible and unjust step, nothing I add here will convince you. I’m just going to ask all of you who share that opinion to go, NOW, and contact your council members. While having a member of council as a plaintiff on the suit may not be strictly necessary from a legal point of view, it might help overcome any challenge to the standing of the others bringing the suit. Continue reading

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How much does this have to do with the new central library?

  By Libraries, Philadelphia

My understanding is that the library addition will costs around $130 million of which $100 million has been raised. Some of that came from the city’s capital funds. Some came from the state and some came from foundations. And some has come from major donors. But capital costs for the building are one thing. Paying the operating costs are another. I imagine that this high-tech library will be expensive to operate. Is that why library administration wants to get library operating costs down now? Is that why the library is taking a 20% hit when other agencies are taking no more than a 10% hit? Don’t get me wrong. The central library addition looks like it will be wonderful. It is being designed by Moshe Safdie who is a brilliant civic architect. (His City of Quebec museum is a wonderful public space as well as a wonderful museum.) But I’m… Continue reading

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My first trip to the public library

  By Libraries

Perhaps we can use this space to tell our stories about libraries and what they mean to us. The public library in my hometown was, when I first visited at abot 6 six years old, in a little corner of the municipal building / fire house/ courthouse. (With a population of 5000, you can kind of put everything in one place.) It had a distinctive smell, of course, of books. It’s a small I love to this day. The librarian gave us all a little talk about how the library works. When she said we could actually take books home, I looked around in wonder at all the books and felt a sense of ownership. I blurted out, “You mean any of them? We can take them home?” So then I had to find one…and there were lots of choices. That was the day I learned the pleasure of browsing… Continue reading

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Save the branches

  By Libraries, Philadelphia

Mayor Nutter recently announced that eleven branch libraries will be closed, not temporary but permanently, due to the budget crisis. Thirty six branch library staff members will be laid off as will 25 staff members of the central library. The library is taking, as a percentage of its budget, a larger reduction (of about 20%) than any other city agency. I believe this reduction is a serious mistake and am working with the Friends of the Free Library to build opposition to these cutbacks. Why are these library reductions so unconscionable? 1. Library branches are critical to education in Philadelphia. We live in a city in which elementary schools do not have libraries. Indeed, only one high school library, at Central, meets the states minimum requirements. 2. Library branches are one of the most important places our kids go after school. Our kids find not only books and magazines and… Continue reading