Philly libraries closing?

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that the city’s library system plans to shut down on October 2.

The Free Library of Philadelphia has posted notices at its branches and on its web site advising users that all libraries will close at the end of business on Oct. 2 if the state Legislature does not act on the city’s budget request.

The notices also say that all material will now be due Oct. 1 and that nothing can be borrowed after Sept. 30.

Besides closing libraries, the Nutter administration’s so-called Plan C doomsday budget includes eliminating court-system funding, shutting down all recreation centers and laying off up to 3,000 workers, including police and firefighters.

Layoff notices could go out on Friday if the Legislature does not approve the city’s request for a temporary sales-tax hike and a two-year deferral of payments into the pension fund.

I admit I don’t know the whole back story, and this does sound a little bit like an attention-grabbing stunt meant to pressure the legislature. Even if it were a stunt, though (which I doubt), it’s such an extreme one that it still means the situation is very dire. I mean, it’s not necessary to cut funding for libraries and fire departments and police departments and rec centers and courts (?!) in order to get people’s attention. Any one of them would be plenty if that were the only reason. The city government has posted this PDF showing the service changes possible under “Plan C.” It includes more cuts, such as reduced trash collection and the closing of the entire Fairmount Park system.

The whole thing sounds dreadful, but I admit it was the library system closing that really tugged at my heartstrings. When I was growing up, the highlight of my week was biking to the local library with my family to return the picture books that filled our backpacks, and to fill our bags up again with new ones. Libraries contribute so much to public literacy, even just by insinuating the expectation that people be literate, and that they ought to value literacy and information availability. I can’t imagine a major city like Philadelphia going on without them, especially considering their longstanding history of free libraries. It’s always sad when people lose their jobs, but cutting back on a particular service (as many of the budget cuts would do) is different from cutting it out entirely.

It’s Thursday already, and I haven’t been able to dig up any news about progress on this budget. Here’s hoping that things turn around soon.

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September 17, 2009 · Written by
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