WASHPO: Feeling The Pinch, D.C. Libraries Cutting Back
Sunday, Holiday Hours, Bookmobile Are Shelved
By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 18, 2009
The D.C. bookmobile will be parked, neighborhood libraries will close on Sundays and all city libraries will close on Monday holidays beginning Oct. 5 to help save $4.8 million, as the District tries to cope with its budget crunch.
The library cutbacks are one of a number of service reductions that District residents will feel when the 2010 fiscal year begins Oct. 1. As in most jurisdictions in the Washington region, the city's revenue is down because of the recession. So city leaders had to find ways to close a potential $666 million budget gap over three years, pushing the Fenty administration to cut spending plans for all departments and the council to raise sales and cigarette taxes.
Ginnie Cooper, the D.C. Public Library's chief librarian, said Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and council members had to make the tough decision to slash the library budget by 11 percent, to $40 million. But, she said, the agency hopes to provide adequate services with the help of volunteers and by opening Martin Luther King Jr. Library, the central library, on Sundays so the public has seven days of access to the system.
Currently, the system opens all the neighborhood libraries on Sundays, and one in each ward on Monday holidays. Cooper said that is no longer possible with the budget cuts.
To continue reading go HERE.
For more Congress Heights and River East news visit The Congress Heights Examiner website, http://www.examiner.com/x-13507-Congress-Heights-Community-Examiner
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By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 18, 2009
The D.C. bookmobile will be parked, neighborhood libraries will close on Sundays and all city libraries will close on Monday holidays beginning Oct. 5 to help save $4.8 million, as the District tries to cope with its budget crunch.
The library cutbacks are one of a number of service reductions that District residents will feel when the 2010 fiscal year begins Oct. 1. As in most jurisdictions in the Washington region, the city's revenue is down because of the recession. So city leaders had to find ways to close a potential $666 million budget gap over three years, pushing the Fenty administration to cut spending plans for all departments and the council to raise sales and cigarette taxes.
Ginnie Cooper, the D.C. Public Library's chief librarian, said Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and council members had to make the tough decision to slash the library budget by 11 percent, to $40 million. But, she said, the agency hopes to provide adequate services with the help of volunteers and by opening Martin Luther King Jr. Library, the central library, on Sundays so the public has seven days of access to the system.
Currently, the system opens all the neighborhood libraries on Sundays, and one in each ward on Monday holidays. Cooper said that is no longer possible with the budget cuts.
To continue reading go HERE.
For more Congress Heights and River East news visit The Congress Heights Examiner website, http://www.examiner.com/x-13507-Congress-Heights-Community-Examiner
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