Robin Diener
Director, DC Library Renaissance Project
202/387-8030; cell 202/431-9254
Chairman Gray Looks to Prevent Cut in Library Hours,
Will Inquire about $2M Promised in July
Washington DC – February 13, 2009 – At a DC Council hearing on the District’s use of federal stimulus funds, Chairman Vincent Gray appeared puzzled to learn that the DC Public Library had not received $2 million promised by Mayor Adrian Fenty to avoid cuts in library hours in FY2009.
On the day of the hearing, a Washington Post article announced library cutbacks of 7-8 hours per branch per week, to go into effect March 1 (Public Library Weighs Reduced Branch Hours, 2-11-09, B04).
Mayor Fenty had previously announced the allocation of $2 million needed to avoid the cuts (available because payment for the District's debt service on capital projects was less than anticipated), at a press conference last summer. However, DCPL recently learned that the money would not be forthcoming.
Gray was reacting to a request to restore the funding by Robin Diener, Director of the
Library Renaissance Project, who testified near the end of the day-long hearing.
Diener cited the “mythic” statement that no libraries were closed during the Great Depression. “Library usage always goes up in an economic downturn. We should be extending library hours, not cutting back.” Diener, who also serves as Secretary of the citywide Federation of Friends of the DC Public Library, is a proponent of using trained volunteers to supplement library staff.
Chairman Gray said he would alert Councilmember Harry Thomas (Ward 5), Chairman of the Library Committee, who would be sympathetic to preventing the cut in hours.
The hearing on "Priorities for the Use of Potential Funds for the District of Columbia from Recovery and Reinvestment Proposals Currently Under Consideration in the US House of Representative and the Senate," took place on February 11, 2009, from 10 am to 8 am.
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