Despite the fact that we fended off Eyman’s I-1033 disaster, there’s still lots of budget trouble. The Mayor’s 2010 budget makes some deep cuts, and the Friends of the Seattle Library are very worried about what it means for our library. Jennifer Johnson-Fong writes:
As you may know, [Wallingford’s] Library’s hours will drastically change if the Mayor’s proposed 2010 budget passes. The proposed budget eliminates 17,160 public service hours per year and would impact your neighborhood directly with the closure of your neighborhood branch on Friday and Sunday plus a reduction in hours – all year round. Your neighborhood branch would be open after six only twice a week. Among many other services, hour changes will impact story times, nighttime classes, community meeting room availability and homework help programs. Your neighborhood’s access to The Library’s free public computers and free Wi-Fi will be another lost resource that many community members without a computer or internet access depend on.
The good news is that Councilmembers Burgess, Harrell and Licata are committed to preserving the hours of operations at all neighborhood branches of The Seattle Public Library. On November 2nd Seattle City Councimembers began discussing four options to partially restore the 5% reduction in the endorsed library budget. None of the options will prevent another one week furlough in 2010, but the best choice, Option A, does preserve Library hours in your neighborhood branch at their current level and prevents the loss of 27 library staff positions.
The Friends have launched an email campaign targeted at Councilmembers Clark, Conlin, Drago, Godden and Rasmussen to urge them to join Councilmembers Burgess, Harrell and Licata in preserving neighborhood library hours. They’re asking everyone to e-mail Sally Clark [email protected] , Jan Drago [email protected] , Tom Rasmussen [email protected] , Jean Godden [email protected] and Richard Conlin [email protected] with the message “Please join fellow Councilmembers Burgess, Harrell and Licata and vote for Option A– restoring the 330 weekly service hours to keep our libraries open normal hours in 2010,” and include information about which library you use.
More information on the proposed budget at it impacts libraries at Seattle Public Library web site.
Hi, the University and Wallingford branch libraries are always crowded, especially at the computers, so it is hard to imagine having hours cut so they would be open after 6 only twice a week. I know times are tough, and I could understand having the weeklong furlough in August, but the proposed year-round reduction in hours is hard to swallow. Check out the Friends of the Seattle Public LIbrary blog (http://friendsofspl.wordpress.com) to read stories on the different ways people use and rely on the LIbrary. I just emailed those City council members, and I hope folks will take the time to do so too, as it really does make a difference.