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Boston Public Library Update - Save Your Central Services and Save JP For Next Year
Hello All. We may feel safe in JP for now, but the more we can overwhelm our law makers and library leaders now, the less work we'll have to do next year to save JP again. Please stay with the fight and here's an update as to what's going on.
For JP Specifically, please attend the Coffee Hour on Monday in Mozart Street Play Area @ Mozart & Centre
State Update:
Rep. Forry (Dorchester) & Rep. Moran (Brighton) introduced amendments to the budget that withhold state funding for the library if any of the 26 branches are closed as a part of the city's budget. 12 representatives of the Boston delegation support the amendment and it will be debated this week. Sen. Hart is working with the Reps. to put the same amendment into the Senate Budget.
Action: Call or write to your representative and ask him or
her to support budget amendment 615, 616, & 617. Also, call or write to your senator and tell him or her that you support introducing the same amendment in the senate.
City Update:
The city budget was released. Of particular note is that it seems that administrative personnel spending (Project 1 which includes the President's Office, HR, Administration and Finance, etc.) is actually up $500K and that the cost to close the branches looks to be about $350K. This estimate is based on a line item for Building Maintenance that has had a tiny appropriation the past two years and this year is up near $380K. We are requesting more information on these line items to understand these costs better.
More details on the plan for the Central Library have been emerging. Major layoffs will take place among janitors, book delivery personnel, reference librarians, and workers supporting research services. Reference sections are being consolidated into more general departments and expertise will be lost. The Newspaper Room and the Microtext department will also be lost. Two groups that have spoken out against these departmental closures are genealogists and baseball historians as information needed to conduct research on one's own
family and the Red Sox will be affected by these changes.
The city budget hearing schedule was released on Friday. The libraries will be in the middle of the schedule, it's been moved to later to make sure the issue remains front and center up until the vote on 6/23 or 6/30. The exact date may be changed, so we aren't releasing it yet, but it's more than a month away, so there's plenty of time to plan. We do know that it will be at City Hall. Councillor Mark Ciommo will work with supporters of Faneuil to bus supporters in to the hearing and we hope to do the same in other outlying neighbors.
We will also work on drafting a statement that the councillors can endorse now that the picture is clearer and certain districts are safe.
Watch http://peopleofboston.org for more information, press releases, and events.
Action: Write or call Ways & Means Chairman Mark Ciommo (Mark.Ciommo@cityofboston.gov)
to let him know how important the libraries are and the importance of a rigorous vetting of the library's budget. Write or call at-large councillors John Connolly (John.R.Connolly@cityofboston.gov), Ayanna Pressley (Ayanna.Pressley@cityofboston.gov), Felix Arroyo (Felix.Arroyo@cityofboston.gov), and Stephen Murphy (Stephen.Murphy@cityofboston.gov) to let them know that you want a budget that better supports the
branches and the central services that all library users use. Write or call your own councillor.
Group Update: This peopleofboston@gmail.com mailing list is 250 people strong and our
Facebook group is nearly 2500 strong. We continue to work with great groups like Massachusetts Jobs with Justice and the Unions that are represented at the library. A new group of supporters that we are incorporating into our planning are those involved in the Chinatown struggle. They know what happens when you lose a library and they have been doing great advocacy and community work to deploy a storefront model of library services that shows the value of small branches and the love of libraries that lives in Chinatown. They are another voice that has been stifled by this process as capital planning has moved on without them because their opinion was not incorporated during the operating budget process.
Thanks to the MJwJ support, we will have the capacity to fundraise via tax-deductible donations soon. Friends of Lower Mills and their supporters have designed and are printing lawn signs and we hope to get these out to neighborhoods within the city. If you have any interest in buying some for yourself or for your neighborhood, they are $10. We also hope to have shirts made to wear to the budget hearing so that our supporters will be easy to spot. We will also be putting together new fliers and targeting the Central Branch and other neighborhoods with more information on these cuts. Look for these events in May.
Upcoming Events:
April 26th - The mayor's coffee hours begin in Brighton - Allston St. & Griggs Pl. - 9:30 A.M. - 10:30 A.M. - Rain or Shine
The full schedule for these events is posted on the city's website and at http://peopleofboston.org - Tell the mayor how important the branches, central services, and workers of the library are to you. Stay positive and let us know what he says back. If you can't make it to your area's coffee hour or it gets rained out, write to mayor@cityofboston.gov. Also, if you see your mayor's office liason out at another event, let him or her know that the libraries are important to you. They also have e-mail addresses if you want to write to them. They can be found on the city's website.
May 1 - Wake Up the Earth Parade - Decorating of bikes,
strollers, wheelchairs, etc. begins at 9:45 A.M. at Curtis Hall, 20
South Street (the Monument), Jamaica Plain. We will have library supporters marching, which begins at 11:00 A.M. Please arrive by 10:30 A.M. to get organized. After the parade, librarians will be hosting a table at the WUTE Festival at the Southwest Corridor park outside the Stony Brook T-Station. Look for them, there will be activities and ways to show your support for the library.
April 26 - 29th - Spontaneous Celebrations is opening up their
space at 75 Danforth St., Jamaica Plain (Stony Brook - T) from 2 - 8 P.M. each day for banner, hat, puppet, and costume making. Only cost is materials (about $5). A fun way to get ready for the big parade.
Keep up the fight, it's a long way until June 23rd, but we can win this!
For JP Specifically, please attend the Coffee Hour on Monday in Mozart Street Play Area @ Mozart & Centre
State Update:
Rep. Forry (Dorchester) & Rep. Moran (Brighton) introduced amendments to the budget that withhold state funding for the library if any of the 26 branches are closed as a part of the city's budget. 12 representatives of the Boston delegation support the amendment and it will be debated this week. Sen. Hart is working with the Reps. to put the same amendment into the Senate Budget.
Action: Call or write to your representative and ask him or
her to support budget amendment 615, 616, & 617. Also, call or write to your senator and tell him or her that you support introducing the same amendment in the senate.
City Update:
The city budget was released. Of particular note is that it seems that administrative personnel spending (Project 1 which includes the President's Office, HR, Administration and Finance, etc.) is actually up $500K and that the cost to close the branches looks to be about $350K. This estimate is based on a line item for Building Maintenance that has had a tiny appropriation the past two years and this year is up near $380K. We are requesting more information on these line items to understand these costs better.
More details on the plan for the Central Library have been emerging. Major layoffs will take place among janitors, book delivery personnel, reference librarians, and workers supporting research services. Reference sections are being consolidated into more general departments and expertise will be lost. The Newspaper Room and the Microtext department will also be lost. Two groups that have spoken out against these departmental closures are genealogists and baseball historians as information needed to conduct research on one's own
family and the Red Sox will be affected by these changes.
The city budget hearing schedule was released on Friday. The libraries will be in the middle of the schedule, it's been moved to later to make sure the issue remains front and center up until the vote on 6/23 or 6/30. The exact date may be changed, so we aren't releasing it yet, but it's more than a month away, so there's plenty of time to plan. We do know that it will be at City Hall. Councillor Mark Ciommo will work with supporters of Faneuil to bus supporters in to the hearing and we hope to do the same in other outlying neighbors.
We will also work on drafting a statement that the councillors can endorse now that the picture is clearer and certain districts are safe.
Watch http://peopleofboston.org for more information, press releases, and events.
Action: Write or call Ways & Means Chairman Mark Ciommo (Mark.Ciommo@cityofboston.gov)
to let him know how important the libraries are and the importance of a rigorous vetting of the library's budget. Write or call at-large councillors John Connolly (John.R.Connolly@cityofboston.gov), Ayanna Pressley (Ayanna.Pressley@cityofboston.gov), Felix Arroyo (Felix.Arroyo@cityofboston.gov), and Stephen Murphy (Stephen.Murphy@cityofboston.gov) to let them know that you want a budget that better supports the
branches and the central services that all library users use. Write or call your own councillor.
Group Update: This peopleofboston@gmail.com mailing list is 250 people strong and our
Facebook group is nearly 2500 strong. We continue to work with great groups like Massachusetts Jobs with Justice and the Unions that are represented at the library. A new group of supporters that we are incorporating into our planning are those involved in the Chinatown struggle. They know what happens when you lose a library and they have been doing great advocacy and community work to deploy a storefront model of library services that shows the value of small branches and the love of libraries that lives in Chinatown. They are another voice that has been stifled by this process as capital planning has moved on without them because their opinion was not incorporated during the operating budget process.
Thanks to the MJwJ support, we will have the capacity to fundraise via tax-deductible donations soon. Friends of Lower Mills and their supporters have designed and are printing lawn signs and we hope to get these out to neighborhoods within the city. If you have any interest in buying some for yourself or for your neighborhood, they are $10. We also hope to have shirts made to wear to the budget hearing so that our supporters will be easy to spot. We will also be putting together new fliers and targeting the Central Branch and other neighborhoods with more information on these cuts. Look for these events in May.
Upcoming Events:
April 26th - The mayor's coffee hours begin in Brighton - Allston St. & Griggs Pl. - 9:30 A.M. - 10:30 A.M. - Rain or Shine
The full schedule for these events is posted on the city's website and at http://peopleofboston.org - Tell the mayor how important the branches, central services, and workers of the library are to you. Stay positive and let us know what he says back. If you can't make it to your area's coffee hour or it gets rained out, write to mayor@cityofboston.gov. Also, if you see your mayor's office liason out at another event, let him or her know that the libraries are important to you. They also have e-mail addresses if you want to write to them. They can be found on the city's website.
May 1 - Wake Up the Earth Parade - Decorating of bikes,
strollers, wheelchairs, etc. begins at 9:45 A.M. at Curtis Hall, 20
South Street (the Monument), Jamaica Plain. We will have library supporters marching, which begins at 11:00 A.M. Please arrive by 10:30 A.M. to get organized. After the parade, librarians will be hosting a table at the WUTE Festival at the Southwest Corridor park outside the Stony Brook T-Station. Look for them, there will be activities and ways to show your support for the library.
April 26 - 29th - Spontaneous Celebrations is opening up their
space at 75 Danforth St., Jamaica Plain (Stony Brook - T) from 2 - 8 P.M. each day for banner, hat, puppet, and costume making. Only cost is materials (about $5). A fun way to get ready for the big parade.
Keep up the fight, it's a long way until June 23rd, but we can win this!
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