Brooklyn Public Library Receives Its Largest Donation Ever But Budget Issues Continue in Brooklyn; NYPL and Queens Also Face Very Large Cuts
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) has received a $3.25 million donation (the largest in BPL history) from the Leon Levy Foundation to build the Leon Levy Information Commons at the Central Library. It will be completed in 2013.
Tremendous news both for the library professionals, staff, and library users.
The donation is intended to cater to changing needs of library patrons and assure the institution remains relevant to the community, Ms. [Shelby] White says. [She is a NY philanthropist and the widow or Mr. Levy] [Our emphasis] The glut of information online requires new skills, she says, and librarians are in a prime position to teach people how to utilize the technology.
Those words alone are worth a lot.
However, three paragraphs into the article the writer reminds us that while this is an exciting day for BPL, issues remain.
The gift, which comes at a time when the library faces a $20.6 million cut in city funding…
What really drive this point home is when we headed to the Brooklyn Public Library web site to see if we could learn more about the donation and the budget issues.
One moment your up and a few minutes later you realize that major budget issues are casting their shadows on what otherwise would have everyone dancing in the streets. We do hope everyone in Brooklyn does enjoy and appreciate the exciting news.
As we said, the not so good news appears at the beginning of each visit to the BPL homepage. A window appears (if you can’t see it for whatever reason, here’s a screenshot) alerting you to a possible $20.6 million budget cut.
It goes on to say that BPL would have to close 16 branches.
+ Weekend hours severely limited
+ Hundreds would be laid off
+ “Essential” materials and “important” services would be drastically cut.
Two buttons are provided. One with info about reaching out to elected officials the other about donating money for books and other materials.
Not much to say after those bullet points.
Once you’re on the homepage you’ll notice that BPL is taking donations via the phone. When you enter your phone number a $10 donation is added to your bill.
So, talk about a roller coaster of a time in Brooklyn. From receiving the largest donation ever to build an exciting new area of the library to the realization that major budget cuts still loom. Ugh!
What about two other library systems in New York City?
Unfortunately, things aren’t any better on the other side of the East River at the New York Public Library where you’ll also find an info box before you reach the homepage talking about the repercussions of a possible $36 million budget cut that would see hours cut from six to four days a week amongst many other cuts not to mention layoffs.
After A Click
A visit to the Queens Library proves to be no different than the other two. At the top of the home page, it reads, “Save Queens Library.” A click takes you to this page with info about a possible $16.9 million dollar cut (30% of its current budget) and info about some libraries being closed outright while others would only be open two or three days a week.
Finally, a visit across the Hudson River to New Jersey and now we’re in a statewide library budget cut situation. The Governor’s proposed budget cuts sees library funding cut by 74%. Included in the cuts is the elimination of Internet access and e-journals.
Since it’s New York City metro area, the country if not the world is watching. It’s our fear that budget cuts of this size in NYC would be felt all over the country with politicians who think that if multiple NYC metro library systems can cut funding we might as well give it a go here. Hopefully, we’re wrong about this.
A family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success. Read more »
Recently I have found myself cooing over visualisation maps (and heat maps) of health and well being resources. The content rich data is overlayed with mapping technologies, and some interesting themes and patterns are emerging.
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Information overload is a figment of your imagination. Or a failure of your filter. Or a symptom of your technological submissiveness. Depends on who you ask.
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Alacra Compliance saves time by aggregating information from both free and fee-based sources and enabling users to conduct an accurate federated search across these sources (coined “simultaneous search” by Alacra).
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