Pubilc library use is up as much as sixty-five percent over the past year, according to the Wall Street Journal.  Tonight at the Rochambeau LIbrary, members of the Providence Community Library will be having a roundtable discussion about the future of Providence library branches.

Tonight
7 pm
708 Hope St.

The board of the library will be meeting at noon today to discuss the fact that they have less than two weeks to decide how they’re going to keep themselves afloat.  By contract, they only have until the 31st to approve a plan for a “sustainable system.”

Since the economy is collapsing around us, it might not be that surprising that lots of people are rediscovering public libraries as a free means of entertainment, but if the PPL gets their way many city residents will be out of luck.  The sustainability plan includes closing four neighborhood libraries (in Smith Hill, Olneyville, Fox Point and Wanskuck) as well as keeping Washington Park from ever reopening, even though the city just renovated it and people in the neighborhood regularly protest about it.  So if you’re one of the many, many transportation-deprived kids or elderly people in those neighborhoods, you might be out of luck come the next fiscal year.

The board meetings are open to the public and take place on the third floor of the central library (on Empire Street).  Hopefully some people will show up to let the library know that closing branches is lame and that they could, I don’t know, maybe try fundraising at some point.

If you’re reading this and it’s before 10 AM and you’re not at work or otherwise occupied–a longshot, I know–you should head down to the Washington Park Library (1316 Broad Street), where some community members are staging a rally to get the branch opened again.  I posted about the ridiculous situation at Washington Park last month, and it seems like nothing’s changing…

The rally’s being organized by Open Table of Christ, one of several churches in the neighborhood that have been struggling (for two and a half years, now) to see their library reopened.

(And I promise to mention things like this a little more punctually from now on.)

Today’s July 1st, which marks the beginning of a new fiscal year at the library.  What that means exactly is sort of up for debate; last year library administrators said they wanted a written contract with the city about what services they’d be providing, but then they spent the whole year refusing to agree to anything.

If they don’t sign an agreement soon, the backup plan is to close five branches, in Smith Hill and Olneyville and Wanskuck and Elmwood and Fox Point.  And that’s not counting the Washington Park library, the closed branch that the city just spent Lord knows how much money on, adding a new roof and cleaning out ten years’ worth of mold and dead pigeons; the library administration, for whatever crazy reason, is refusing to reopen the branch, preferring to keep limited services in half of the old Benny’s down the street.

Also very vulnerable is the Fox Point branch, which is the only one of the (open) libraries currently operating on a lease.  The building, on the corner of Wickenden and Ives, isn’t in the best shape–it’s dark and unattractive and not accessible to the handicapped and if anybody tested the air they’d probably find something unsafe about it–but it’s a vital part of the neighborhood, staffed by knowledgeable and friendly people, and it would be a shame if the library decided not to renew their lease without making alternate plans for all the kids, families and senior citizens that use the branch every day.