"It’s outrageous that it has come to this,’’ said Yann Poisson of Dorchester. “Only a fifth-term mayor could dismiss libraries as a 21st-century anachronism, something that can be replaced by Yahoo or Google.’’
The library’s president, Amy E. Ryan, outlined a broad range of criteria that will be used to target branches for potential closing, including computer usage, handicapped accessibility, proximity to other branches, and the story behind each location. No decisions have been made.
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Library administrators and [Mayor Thomas M.] Menino have talked about transforming the library for the digital age and moving services out of buildings by increasing offerings on the Internet and sending librarians to day-care centers and nursing homes.
Yesterday Ryan referred to librarians as “information navigators’’ and compared the system’s current technology to an abridged encyclopedia, not a multivolume set.
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But many in the audience bristled at the frequent references to technology. They spoke about their branches as refuges, gathering places, and focal points for their communities.
