LISNews: Librarian News

Public reaction to the prospect of stiffer Seattle library fines was just what you'd expect: mixed. And a bit limited.

City Library Board members are considering raising daily overdue-materials fines from 15 cents to 25 cents, with a maximum fine of $8 for each overdue piece of material. They're also pondering whether to notify parents or guardians of youths 17 and under who owe more than $25 in fines, and to send some youths' backlogged fines to a collection agency, which is not now done.

All this comes as the library has had its budget cut $1.17 million this year and faces even more as the city confronts a two-year, $121-million revenue shortfall through 2012. Library hours and some staff have already been cut and there are warnings that more reductions are possible.

Raising fines and fees could raise $650,000 per year, according to library staff, in addition to the $650,000 the library expects to save by shutting branches down for a week, starting Monday.

Interesting ideas from patrons: 1) accepting credit cards and PayPal
2) allowing payment online and 3) try being a little more serious about collecting fines. Story from Seattle PI.

Seattle PI: Seattle's libraries will close for a week beginning late this month, leaving patrons without many normal services while the city continues to ponder how the system will operate on less money next year. It will be the second budget-driven closure in a year.

The system will close Aug. 30 through Sept. 6, including Labor Day, with regular operations to resume Sept. 7. During the closure patrons will be able to download e-books from the system and will have access to databases for encyclopedias, consumer information and investment but won't be able to reserve, pick up or drop off books or talk with librarians. The closure will mean salary reductions for nearly 650 employees who will not be paid during that week.

The library shutdown, part of the city's effort to deal with a $67-million city budget shortfall, was planned for a time when library use is lower than at other times in the year, when school is not in session and fewer programs are scheduled, staffers said.

Mayor Mike McGinn has asked the library and other city agencies to trim budgets to deal with the revenue shortfall. He'll submit a proposed 2011 budget on Sept. 27.

The public libraries in Camden, NJ may not be closing after all. Camden Mayor Dana Redd is announcing a rescue plan that will keep Camden’s public libraries open.

Plans were in the works last week to shut down the three branches of the city library system, because of a $28-million budget gap.

But Redd and freeholder director Louis Cappelli were unveiling a strategy today at a City Hall news conference to keep the libraries open. It’s possible that strategy may include the city becoming part of the Camden County library system.

And from NPR's two-way blog:

On Monday, Redd said a new plan called for the city's library system would join the county's, thereby maintaining library service in the hard-scrabble city across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.

So it seemed a lot more likely Monday than Friday that Camden's residents, many of whom fall below the federal poverty line, will still be able to get access to a library's computers and books.

Somewhere poet Walt Whitman, Camden's most famous man of letters, must be smiling. Ditto for Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin, the creator of one of the nation's earliest lending libraries."

Los Angeles Public Library supporters are gathered outside Central Library today to protest a two-day-a-week closure caused by budget cuts.

The demonstration started at 9:30 a.m. outside the Fifth Street entrance, 630 W. Fifth Street, said Mark Siegel, a city librarian.

Each of the city's 73 libraries will now be closed Sundays and Mondays because of a massive budget shortfall. Library services absorbed a 28% reduction in its workforce.

Siegel said at least seven librarians and 50 support staff have been laid off in the restructuring. He said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council had misplaced priorities in allowing the cuts.

"We just completed a massive rebuilding program, and people aren't able to use their libraries," he said. "We want them to move us up on the list."

Video from ABC news and story from the LA Times and the LA Daily News.