Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Mayor Cicilline Supports The Five Endangered Branches

Well this is good news:



Mayor Cicilline expressed his opposition last Friday, December 19th to plans by the Providence Public Library to reduce the number of neighborhood library branches from nine to four. The City of Providence is the largest donor to the Providence Public Library, a privately-endowed, not-for-profit institution, giving approximately $3.4 million last year.

“As I have made clear for many years, I am opposed to any plan that reduces the presence of library services in our neighborhoods,” said Mayor Cicilline. “I understand the financial difficulty of administering a large, public institution, especially in these times, but it is critical that we uphold the 100-year-old mission of the Providence Public Library for today and for the future.”

Library trustees cited as critical to their decision a proposal to obligate the City to incur the costs of administering a number of neighborhood branches as “Neighborhood Learning Centers.” Such a proposal was presented to the City the previous day, Wednesday, December 17th, with no discussion on the matter by Library and City officials.

News outlets incorrectly reported last week that there was support from the City administration for the Library plan.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

the Mayor was at the reception for Rhode Island's Future. He's a friend to bloggers, and I hope he will support the library.