Calling the management of the Providence Public Library (PPL) arrogant and disinterested in providing library services, library critics continue to press for more public control of the nonprofit corporation.
On February 15, 20 library patrons and unionized staff rallied at Providence City Hall for a proposed ordinance to place eight publicly appointed members on the library’s 33-member board. Hoping to avoid a confrontation with the library management, however, the City Council tabled the ordinance the next day.
Rochelle Lee of South Providence, a member of Save Our Branches, worries that the delay may enable the library board to close branches when the library’s strategic plan is released in May. But Patricia Raub, leader of the Library Reform Group, is more optimistic. “We’re making progress,” she says, noting that the council and the library board hope to avoid a situation in which “the library feels compelled to turn down public funding in July, which would have a disastrous impact.” Currently, the city provides the library with approximately one-third of its $9.8 million budget.
The PPL has been under intense criticism for the past two years for laying off staff, converting the central library to a branch library, contracting out unionized maintenance work, and closing the Washington Park branch, in January, without notice. In response, library staff unionized, reform groups formed to demand more public control over library decisions, and the General Assembly passed legislation requiring library board meetings to be open to the public.
Tonia Mason, the library’s director of marketing, said she was too busy to talk with the Phoenix and referred calls to Maureen Sheridan, the PPL’s director of institutional advancement. Sheridan and Mary Olenn of Barrington, chair of the Library Board of Trustees, didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Library critics are most concerned with the library administration’s financial priorities. “They see the core mission as protecting the endowment,” says Lee. Another Save Our Branches member points to the library’s most recent available federal tax return in criticizing management. Ellen Schwartz of Washington Park, a certified public accountant, notes that the return indicates how $20 million of the library’s endowment is not restricted, and could therefore be used to repair crumbling buildings and provide services at neighborhood branches. The return also indicates that the library finished the 2004 fiscal year with an additional $2.6 million surplus.
Most important to her neighborhood, Schwartz says, is reopening the Washington Park branch on Broad Street that was closed due to a leaking roof. “If you save for a rainy day and it’s started raining,“ Schwartz argues, “you can spend [the endowment.] And it was raining inside the library.” Lee adds that despite the leaks, the Washington Park collection has not been moved.
Concerns extend beyond the Washington Park branch. Lisa Niebels of Providence, a member of the Library Reform Group, worries that badly needed roof repairs at the Knight Memorial Library on Elmwood Avenue are being ignored. And Karen McAninch, business agent for the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island, is concerned that discussion of early retirement packages may signal plans for more layoffs. “I can’t see how they could layoff more people,” she comments, “without decimating the library more than they have done.”
