The saga of the financially stressed Providence Public Library sometimes seems like a story being written by multiple authors, some of whom aren’t on speaking terms, even as they sharpen their own plotlines.
This could produce several possible endings as the fiscal year closes June 30:
• A classic Hollywood ending, in which our squabbling couple reconciles, in this case the City of Providence, which provides much of the library’s operating funds, and the not-for-profit library corporation, which owns and runs the system. Such a reconciliation could keep the entire system open: the Central Library in downtown Providence, and nine neighborhood branches, including a currently shuttered Washington Park branch.
• A Stephen King bloodbath, in which primitive, supernatural serial killers succeed in slicing the library into little pieces. Some or all of the branches would close, ushering in Providence’s own Dark Ages.
• A TV cliffhanger, which resolves some plotlines, but leaves others up in the air. So, this season’s ending would be sort of like last year’s, which was like the one the year before, which was like the one the year before, which was like the one the year before.
As the current chapter got underway earlier this fiscal year, the library was operating under a temporary agreement, in which the library and city agreed to kick in extra funds, while a Municipal Library Working Group, appointed by Mayor David N. Cicilline, shaped a long-term solution.
Under the guidance of the Reverend Maria DeCarvalho, a professional facilitator working as a volunteer, that panel has formed a subgroup of city and library officials, trying to resolve both financial issues, as well as those dealing with control or governance of the library system.
DeCarvalho says she hopes an agreement will be thrashed out by the end of May, and that there “is cause to hope for that, [because] the conversations are getting more and more concrete.”
Meanwhile, the library in March formed a Transition Team, which has been concocting possible solutions to various scenarios. In its best-case scenario, the city agrees to an annual $5 million appropriation (compared to $3 million now), allowing the system to run at full speed. In the worst-case option, there’s no formal agreement and the branches close by mid-year.
The library recently sent the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island a two-month warning notice that 53 newly unionized workers could be laid off absent a city-library agreement. The union says the notice seems inappropriate, given that Cicilline already has budgeted $3.3 million in city funds for the library.
Finally, a Library Reform Group of patrons and other friends-of-the-library, has been keeping up pressure from the sidelines (Cicilline did not include its members in his Working Group).
Despite their outsiders’ status, the advocates have kept the library a potent political issue, especially for City Council members, who want to maintain branches in their wards. On May 7, the first of eight information forums sponsored by the library drew a crowd of at least 50.