Library Loot: "The Rich Get Richer":

What's going on in your neck of the woods re. library funding and usage these days? I've just heard that my local library branch is coming extremely close to the ol' guillotine,

its small size having likely condemned it to extinction due to budget cuts. Most folks in Boston have known that city and state funding to libraries will be a lot less this year, but to hear that my local library is definitely "being considered" for closure is terrifying for a book junkie like me.

But this sort of behavior has been going on 
in Boston's neighborhoods for decades,

as hours and services available at many branches
have been reduced and staff "let go",

so why am I so upset by this latest increase
in "cost cutting measures"?

After all, everybody needs to cut back 
"a bit" these days, right? Agreed.

BUT - compared with many other major city library systems the Boston Public Library system has fairly generous and stable funding, with both private and tax monies to help in its upkeep. The problems mainly arise regarding the dispersal of said monies and their tendency to flow to "friends". For decades the scuttlebutt has been that when push-comes-to-shove re. money, the folks at the BPL will always fund the main branch at Copley quite well, and pretty much let the outer branches wither on the vine - if there's "extra" then the branches might get some. And this folklore appears to be true, at least in my admittedly limited experience - whenever cuts need to be made, it always seems as though it's the branches that get whacked, while Copley gets at least level funding, and often a great deal more besides.

Now, don't get me wrong - the Copley (main branch) is a gorgeous thing, a Landmark site, and justifiably "worthy!". Its upkeep must be enormous - its two connected buildings (particularly the elderly flagship McKim) must cost a fortune to heat, and the many collections are quite fabulous and need - and deserve! - extremely expensive care to keep them in their best shape. Not only do I not begrudge them funding for those purposes, I encourage it - that's money well-spent IMO.

The joker in all this, however, is that the BPL has an unsavoury history of cronyism, at least by my memory (while long, it's admittedly faulty and quite perverse at times). Boston can be a mares nest politically, and if you're IN, you get lots of perqs - and funding. And if you're out, well...


In the last couple of decades it has appeared to many patrons as though the folks who run the Boston library system positively adore their flagship location of beautiful Copley and don't seem to care what happens to the peons who utilize the branch libraries' services. This may be my skewed impression as a library user in only the poorest neighborhoods of the city, but I have heard similar complaints from folks all around the city (and librarians!), not just in my local area. And the future does not bode well for many local branches, as service cuts at, and elimination of entire branches are becoming more prevalent across the USA as more and more drastic measures get proposed, purportedly to "eliminate waste". And while I will not use any other toilet jokes herein, I will segue into dumpster diving: one man's trash can be another one's dinner, and it often seems to this personally cash-strapped (and thus very aware of finances) library patron that the branch libraries get the barest sliver of the funding pie already, with likely worse prospects on the horizon given these tight fiscal times.


The Boston Public Library was once famous for its system of "branch libraries", and very (and justifiably) proud of them, but that ethos has gone the way of the dodo over the last twenty or thirty years. The branch library system ought to be receiving increased funding, and a higher profile, not being chopped to bits. BECAUSE:

Most library branches in major cities (including Boston) are reporting increased levels of activity as many out-of-work folks use their computer and networking facilities to search for jobs or just occupy their time, and the boomers are retiring in droves (or being forced to retire, but that's a rant for another day) and thus likely in need of increased library services to help with their increased "leisure time" (oh, gawd, that's another rant in itself!). 
So: 

Isn't it counter-productive for library systems to cut back on getting library resources out to the people who most need them - the poorer and/or older folks in the local neighborhoods?

And in Boston, so very proud of

her library history and cultured associations, 

it's downright despicable.

We could, and should, do better. 

There. Bet you thought I'd never actually get to my point, now, did you?  Affectionately, Abbey

What's going on in your neck of the woods re. library funding and usage these days?

AND THUS, WE BEGIN:

ALL right.

as you may have already suspected, I haven't a clue as to what I'm doing here, but wanted to claim the name for myself since I can't think of anything better and, well, "you know".

Despite many urgings by my overwhelmed email correspondents over the years I have resisted starting my own blog but have finally decided to give 'em a break.