April 15, 2010

There’s no disagreement among the residents of Boston about finding the money to keep every Boston Public Library branch open.  Every scrap of information that has come in to South Boston Online – letters, e-mails, conversations, virtually all newspapers, and so on -  supports keeping all branches open  We hope our elected officials, both at the City and Commonwealth levels are listening.  Very carefully!  They have entered “no excuse land”.

The prime reason for keeping all the branches open is the effect they have on thousands of our children, who love both reading and the many learning experiences that take place in each branch.  There can be no better reason.

To put a number or two on this, it’s an even one-mile walk from the Washington Village Branch to the Branch Library on East Broadway.  That would take young children a half an hour, even if parents allowed their children to walk that far.  In our opinion, closing the Washington Village Branch would essentially deny library services to those children who use it now.  Bluntly stated, that’s unacceptable.  Completely unacceptable.

South Boston Online would like to mention two other points.  First, the Boston Public Library (the BPL) is one of Boston’s most respected and valuable institutions.  It is a jewel in our crown that is envied all across America.  The Library of Congress is much larger, of course, but the BPL collection ranks with the Widener Library at Harvard and the New York City Library.  Its service per capita outdoes them all.  Not bad company.

And the BPL’s branch transactions – mostly book borrowings – number in the millions every year.  Do you recall a few years ago that some City Hall lamebrain recommended closing the Boston Common at times, “because it cost too much to maintain the grass”?  Well, closing branch libraries is an even worse idea. 

South Boston Online was extremely disappointed that four branch closures were voted by the BPL’s Trustees.  Trustees of what?  That’s like the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Trustees voting to shut down the BSO’s ‘cello section.

The second point we’d like to make is that the BPL’s $3.6 million shortfall is ridiculously small in terms of overall city and state spending.  It’s just over one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of Boston’s budget, and hardly even detectible at the state level (Massachusetts kicks in about $1.6 million to the BPL).  Such a small quantity of money can be found somewhere.

Specifically, where can the City and Commonwealth find the necessary $3.6 million?  By requiring all of Boston’s retirees to sign up for Medicare, by more use of flagmen instead of police officers, by releasing political staffers elsewhere instead of cutting 94 library staff, by reducing salaries a mere half a cent on the dollar, or by “all of the above”, along with many other cost-savings measures.

Of course, there’ll be gripes about “balancing the budget on the backs of city and state workers”.  But that’s better than “balancing the budget on the backs of 94 librarians”.  Or worst of all, “balancing the budget on the backs of Boston’s taxpayers and their children.”

These are absolutely the toughest economic times in memory, so it’s time for some equally tough decisions – tough decisions that cut elsewhere in the enormous (and growing) “government class”.  Decisions that preserve our most valuable institutions as they are.

And one additional not-so-small point:  Have you ever dealt with pleasanter, more service-oriented people than branch librarians and their staffs?  We haven’t.

Keep them all on board.  No branch closures.  None!