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Even if your library stays open, don't count on seeing the same librarians
By adamg on Mon, 03/29/2010 - 11:33am
Layoffs and staff re-assignments will be done systemwide by seniority, apparently, which means you could see all new faces behind the desks at your local BPL branch should the trustees vote on April 9 (two days after they get staff recommendations on branch closings - at an 8 a.m. hearing!) to shut up to eight branches and lay off 35 or so branch librarians.
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Adam, what's your source?
Adam, what's your source?
An anonymous source
Can't say more than that, alas.
ah ha
I should have figured that out, what you with the sources and the attributions all the time. (Say that with an Arnold accent.)
I was at a branch library last week and the librarian, speaking softly, explained that the board planned to reduce branches under cover of the budget shortfall. WTF? I'm pissed even if my branch is safe.
What neighborhoods will get stiffed and why? I mean does anyone have a good reason for closing branches?
They haven't come out with the list yet
They'll be doing that at a meeting on April 7 at 8 a.m. in Rabb hall at the main branch, which I'm sure is a very convenient time for concerned patrons.
At last week's trustee meeting, president Amy Ryan was told to come back with several options for trustees to vote on to fill that $3.6-million hole: from closing eight branches to closing none (which would require draconian hour cutbacks). However, they have said one option is a "lead library" system in which eight branches are kept open, and maybe even expanded. Would it surprise you to learn that West Roxbury and Hyde Park are on that list? Also to be protected: Copley, Brighton (which is shut right now, but undergoing several million dollars worth of renovation), Codman Square, Dudley, Grove Hall, Honan/Allston and Mattapan.
And don't forget: Even with branch closings, trustees are talking about significant cutbacks in central administration (everything from window washing to equipment repair) and at the Copley branch (fewer "service points" at which the public can get help from librarians). That could mean 69 layoffs.
Also, trustee Chairman Jeffrey Rudman keeps talking like, even if BPL gets the money from somewhere (whether from the state - unlikely - or from the city digging into its rainy-day fund), he still might propose closing branches to help Ryan achieve her "transformation" of the library. Last week, he said he'd rather see several tiny branches shut so the system could use the money to do more Mattapan-style renovations of a few key libraries.
Interview with BPL President Amy Ryan
about possible cutbacks in branches and services, and a vision for the future of library services in Boston. Aired March 16, 2010 on BNN News.
BPL President Amy Ryan on Boston Branches from Chris Lovett on Vimeo.
Library Access; Sarah-Ann Shaw and BPL Trustee James Carroll
Thoughts on library access from the president of the Friends of the Dudley Branch Library, Sarah-Ann Shaw, and author and BPL Trustee, James Carroll. Captured by BNN News from BPL Trustees meeting March 9, 2010.
On BPL: Sarah-Ann Shaw, James Carroll from Chris Lovett on Vimeo.
The Future of Libraries, BPL President Amy Ryan
Boston Public Library President Amy Ryan speaks on the future of the BPL and response to budget cuts. From BPL trustees meeting March 9, 2010.
BPL President on the Future of Libraries from Chris Lovett on Vimeo.
It looks like we have NURSE
It looks like we have NURSE RATCHET running the libraries of Boston.
Are you really so ignorant as
Are you really so ignorant as to think that this career-librarian (someone who is definitely NOT a corporate manager) is going to intentionally hurt the BPL system? Read what she says and look at what she's doing, she much more interested in preserving the institution and moving into a real placement for the 21st century.
Mayor Menino - the future of the Boston Public Library
Mayor Menino speaks at the annual meeting of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau on the future of the Boston Public Library--in the context of plans for "learning communities" that also include schools, neighborhood non-profits, and Boston's community centers. The mayor also said he wanted to redefine library services in line with changes in technology and new ways of reaching the public, beyond the confines of buildings with books on shelves. Aired on BNN News March 4, 2010.
Mayor Menino on Future of Libraries from Chris Lovett on Vimeo.
Beyond
I am so sick of hearing claptrap like "beyond the confines of buildings with books on shelves." It's a LIBRARY! That's what a library is. If you are militating against buildings with books on shelves, then you are arguing against libraries. You're not improving libraries, not updating libraries for a new millennium. You are arguing to destroy libraries.
A better title for this speech would be "Mayor Menino - the death of the Boston Public Library."
Sorry, Menino. If you can't keep the libraries open, you fail. Rebirth, my ass. All the twenty years of good things you did in this city will be forgotten behind "Mayor Menino - the one who closed the libraries."
Oh, come on
You know he'll be remembered as "the Mayor who helped Liberty Mutual expand their corporate headquarters".
But seriously, he has done some good things. Why the hell did he run for a fifth term with this horror show on the horizon, I wonder? Duty, or vanity?
you gotta admit
under no circumstance can the closing libraries in Boston be considered a positive change given what access to a local library means for the "PEOPLE" and their "NEIGHBORHOODS."
What they're selling no one is buying and for what, a $3 million dollar shortfall? Once they're closed they'll never be re-opened.
The "transformation" is a softening metaphor for limiting hours and closing branches. And for what? $3 million dollar shortfall?
We have an educational crises in the US. So do what? Close the libraries.
We have an employment crisis in the US. So do what? Close the libraries.
Not everyone in the City of Boston can afford Internet access. So do what? Close the local library that provides wireless and computer access to the Internet.
3 million a year.
It's disgusting
And you can't talk on one hand about how you want to improve educational achievement of Boston's poorest kids and then turn around and shut their libraries on the other hand.
It's a failure. There is no way to spin this that it's not a failure. If Menino can't find 3 million to keep the libraries open, then what is he good for?
Library Supporters Walk for Branches
Supporters of the Boston Public Library hold a demonstration against branch closings Sunday, March 28, at the central branch in Copley Square. Report for BNN News by Joe Rowland. Aired March 29, 2010.
Library Supporters Walk for Branches from Chris Lovett on Vimeo.
Library Users Make Case Against Closings
A conversation about possible closings and cuts in the Boston Public Library system with a member of People of Boston Branches, Brandon Abbs, and a user of the Connolly Branch in Jamaica Plain and member of the JP Moms Group, Tracy Zager. Aired March 19, 2010 on BNN News.
Library Users Make Case Against Closings from Chris Lovett on Vimeo.
Here's a link to Boston
Here's a link to Boston Public Library Action Plan FY11 (PDF), see if you can tell where they've decided to close branches to align the organization with the needs of the public or if the plan is a big smokescreen for doing what the mayor, president, and trustees consent to without being direct and honest about it.
New visual identity?
One of the items in the document is a new visual identity for the library. Given that a local private school chose to eliminate books, and the BPL is closing branches, I suggest a book with a knife through it as the new BPL image.
we need a Berthé Gaines on the board to fight for all branches
Either we already do or they haven't updated their website.
Staff will move around.
I think this article states the obvious. Non-Management BPL workers are in umions. When positions are eliminated, workers holding those positions have the option of taking other positions within the organization if they meet certain requirements and seniority. BPL is proposing to eliminate 69 positions at Copley, some of which are held probably by employees who are in the librarians union and the para-professionals union. They may have senority over some of the branch staff and may bump them out of their positions.
I mentioned to my branch librarian that even if we were successful in saving our branch, she might not be working at that location. She was quite surprised. She hadn't thought about it.
At the BPL Trustees meeting last week, Pres. Ryan said she was going to have the rankings of branches based upon the criteria posted on the BPL website by March 31, 2010. The bottom 4-8 will probably be the ones that get closed.
IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Who else is surprised that having a local branch library IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD for kids, grade school and high school students, and adults somehow is no longer a priority in the scheme of priorities?
BPL "transformed"
I challenge anyone to describe in one paragraph what BPL "transformed" looks like, in concrete terms.
West Roxbury on the list...
is probably as far as it goes. No way they close that branch.
List is of libraries that stay open
Of course WRox is on that list!
Dam.
Im not a great speed reader.
Almost half of the libraries NOT on the "protected list"...
...will close, under Menino's "Smash Our Libraries in Order to Gloriously Transform the Future of Boston Libraries" plan.
Concrete
Is so last century
don't count on seeing the same librarians
yes-- that is correct. this is about more than closing branches-- this is a total restructuring---3.6 million is the gap but the cuts to service equal many million more.
Get more librarians from other library schools not Simmons.
Department of Information Studies http://www.albany.edu/cci/informationstudies/ist_a... at the College of Computing and Information http://www.albany.edu/cci/ University at Albany State University of New York offers programs superior to a didactic Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College. Creativity is encouraged in the instruction at Albany unlike the indoctrinate type programming at Simmons. We need more librarians from other library schools than Simmons. We need library schools at University of Massachusetts and Northeastern University. We need to make Boston Public Library a teaching library in the manner that many hospitals are teaching hospitals.
Really?
Have you been at GSLIS Simmons lately? I wouldn't describe everything as "indoctrinate type programming." Plus, recent GSLIS grads (like me) are already fighting like mad for the few (and far between) available library jobs out there - what good would more (and less-established) programs do?
University at Albany Department of Information Studies
Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science tuition is too high with too limited financial assistance programs. Compare it with the Department of Information Studies http://www.albany.edu/cci/informationstudies/ist_a... at the College of Computing and Information http://www.albany.edu/cci/ University at Albany State University of New York. Note in the past Simmons has been instrumental in blocking the setting up of library and information studies programs at University of Massachusetts.
yes, let's compare them...
U. S. News & World Report, in 2009, ranks Simmons as 10th best library program in the nation. Albany? 26th.
Simmons may be expensive, but sometimes you get what you pay for -- a better program.
Methodology
http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/best-grad...