Seattle City Council Passes Option C Funding for The Seattle Public Library November 12, 2009

Today, November 12, 2009, the Seattle City Council unanimously voted to increase the General Subfund (GSF) support for library services by $860,000 in 2010.  As described in the Seattle City Council’s green sheet Tab 94, Action 1, Option C, Version 1, “[$860,000] would restore 140 of the library operating hours that would be eliminated per the 2010 Proposed Budget.  Increasing GSF support for library services by $860,000 would also allow the Library Board to reinstate some of the 27 staff positions (18.8 FTE [Full Time]) that would be eliminated under the 2010 Proposed Budget.”

The new operating hours for The Seattle Public Library will look like this with Option C as per the Seattle City Council’s green sheet Tab 94, Action 1, Option C, Version 1

 Central:

• Hours remain at the current seven day, 62 hour weekly schedule

Ballard, Beacon Hill, Broadview, Capitol Hill, Douglass-Truth, Greenwood, Lake City, Northeast, Rainier Beach, Southwest and West Seattle:

• Open 7 Days per week (60 hours per week): 
• Monday – Thursday, 10 am – 8 pm;
• Friday – Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm;
• Sunday 1 pm – 5 pm

Columbia, Delridge, Fremont, Green Lake, High Point, International District/Chinatown, Madrona-Sally Goldmark, Magnolia, Montlake, NewHolly, Northgate, Queen Anne, South Park, University and Wallingford:

• Open 5 Days per week (35 hours per week, closed Friday and Sunday): 
• Monday – Tuesday, 1 pm – 8 pm;
• Wednesday – Thursday, 11 am – 6 pm;
• Friday:  CLOSED;
• Saturday 10 am – 6 pm;
• Sunday:  CLOSED

Art, Family, Playgrounds and Greenlake Library November 8, 2009

“On a typical Sunday outing we’ll take our bikes and scooters down to the lake, have breakfast, play at the playground, go to the library and go home,” Greenlake patron Rebecca Albiani told us over morning coffee.  The library serves an important role in both her family and professional life. Her eldest son, 8, “is an avid reader; it would bankrupt us to keep him in books by purchasing them,” she said. His current reading list: Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians, Septimus Heap books,  and 39 Clues. The youngest son, 6, “memorizes books so he needs a constant flow of simple stories as he learns to read.”

In professional life, Rebecca “gives talks for general audiences at the Frye Art Museum.” For the past ten years she’s lectured on everything from ancient Egypt to Pop Art. “I couldn’t do that without the library. Every month I have a new topic. 95 percent of my research materials come from the public library,” she said. Wouldn’t the UW Art Library be a stronger resource, we wondered, but Rebecca said the public library’s catalogue is usually ample. “The public library has THE book on the Index of American Design, for instance, which is the New Deal program I’ll be lecturing on in December. I could get a UW library card but it’s so much more convenient to walk to my public library [Greenlake Walkscore: 89] where I know people who work there and I don’t have to worry about parking.”

“The library is a crucial leveling factor. Plus it is simply a wonderful community gathering place” she told us. “When I think about the proposed library budget I worry about Saturday hours and Sunday closures in particular. On Sunday I see people on computers or sitting in the magazine section—that’s where my husband goes. There are always a lot of families reading to kids or kids coloring. At the playground I often hear moms saying, “Shall we go to the library now?”

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Please support Library hours in the 2010 budget.

Seattle Neighborhood Blogs Take Up the Final Call to Action to Save Neighborhood Branch Library Hours November 7, 2009

Neighborhood blogs across Seattle are supporting the Friends of The Seattle Public Library!  Thanks to the Laurelhurst Blog, Rainier Valley Post, Wallyhood, Miller Park, Beacon Hill Blog, My Green Lake and Wedgewood Blog for getting your communities involved in this final email campaign and thanks to Blogging Georgetown, Capitol Hill Seattle, Fremont Universe, Greenwood, Magnolia Voice, PhinneyWood, Queen Anne View and West Seattle Blog for their earlier support.

Your past emails have made a difference!  Councilmembers Burgess, Harrell, and Licata are committed to preserving the current hours of operations at all neighborhood branches of The Seattle Public Library.  We have launched this final e-mail campaign targeted at Councilmembers Clark, Conlin, Drago, Godden, McIver, and Rasmussen to urge them to join Councilmembers Burgess, Harrell, and Licata in preserving our present neighborhood Library hours.  Please send the email outlined below today:

TO: sally.clark@seattle.gov; jan.drago@seattle.gov; tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov; richard.conlin@seattle.gov; jean.godden@seattle.gov; richard.mciver@seattle.gov

CC: tim.burgess@seattle.gov; bruce.harrell@seattle.gov; nick.licata@seattle.gov

SUBJECT:  $1.2 Million Restoration of Library Funds

TEXT: Dear Councilmembers Clark, Conlin, Drago, Godden, McIver, and Rasmussen,

Please join fellow Councilmembers Burgess, Harrell and Licata and vote for Option A to restore the 330 weekly service hours to keep our libraries open normal hours in 2010.

OPTIONAL:  I use the XYZ neighborhood branch for XYZ. OR Share a more personal message about why your neighborhood branch is important to you.

On Nov. 2, Seattle City Councilmembers began discussing four options to partially restore the 5% reduction in the endorsed Library budget. None of the options will prevent another one week furlough in 2010, but the best choice, Option A, does preserve Library hours in your neighborhood branch at their current level and prevents the loss of 27 Library staff positions.

The proposed hours reduction would mean that Beacon Hill, Broadview, Capitol Hill, Columbia, Delridge, Fremont, Green Lake, Greenwood, High Point, International District / Chinatown, Madrona-Sally Goldmark, Magnolia, Montlake, NewHolly, Northeast, Northgate, Queen Anne, South Park, University, Wallingford and West Seattle would be closed on Fridays and Sundays, plus operate at reduced hours – all year.

Thank you Seattle Neighborhood Blogs and their readers for all your support and dedication to your neighborhood library branches.  Please ask your Seattle friends and family to join you in this final email campaign to save neighborhood branch library hours.

How the Mayoral and City Council Candidates Stack Up on Library Funding November 3, 2009

For information on how the Seattle City Council candidates responded to our questions on Library budget issues, see the FSPL website for the 2009 edition of our newsletter.  

We didn’t receive responses from mayoral candidates Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn in time for newsletter publication, but here’s a link to a Seattle Times article about their positions.

Call to Action! Please email undecided Councilmembers now to save library hours November 3, 2009

Councilmembers Burgess, Harrell, and Licata are championing a restoration of 1.2 million dollars to the 2010 budget which will keep our libraries open next year with the same operating hours we enjoy this year.

Unfortunately none of the options Council put forward will stop our libraries from closing for a one week furlough, but we think a one week closure is more than enough.

We want no further cuts to hours but we need your help convincing undecided Councilmembers to vote for Option A, restoration of many hours the mayor’s budget caused our libraries to cut in 2010.  Join the final call to action in support of neighborhood library branch hours
 

Please send this email message and urge friends and family to send it too.

 
TO: sally.clark@seattle.gov; jan.drago@seattle.gov; tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov; richard.conlin@seattle.gov; jean.godden@seattle.gov; richard.mciver@seattle.gov

CC:  tim.burgess@seattle.gov; bruce.harrell@seattle.gov; nick.licata@seattle.gov

SUBJECT:  $1.2 Million Restoration of Library Funds

TEXT: Dear Councilmembers Clark, Conlin, Drago, Godden, McIver, and Rasmussen,

Please join fellow Councilmembers Burgess, Harrell and Licata and vote for Option A to restore the 330 weekly service hours to keep our libraries open normal hours in 2010.

OPTIONAL:  I use the XYZ neighborhood branch for XYZ. OR Share a more personal message about why your neighborhood branch is important to you.

4 Options for restoring library funding November 3, 2009

As the election for new Council members and a new mayor is being decided, important decisions are  being made daily at Seattle City Council. On November 2, City Council began considering 4 options to partially restore library funding. If there is no funding restoration, The Library will have to cut 330 weekly service hours to comply with the Mayor’s 5% reduction in the endorsed 2010 library budget. 21 libraries would close on Friday and Sunday and  be open after six only twice a week. Among many other services, this will impact nighttime classes, community meetings and homework help programs.

If Option A is adopted and the 330 hours are restored, The Library will still close for one entire week in 2010 and will sustain considerable cuts to its Capital budget. Option A, the best case scenario being considered, would  still mean a 3% reduction in the library’s budget.

Board member Tony Provine and Vice President Jennifer Johnson-Fong represented the concerns of many patrons when they spoke to Council members yesterday.  Provine said, “As a part of the proposed budget cuts of $2.6 million from the previously adopted budget, the Library is preparing to reduce service hours at 21 of 27 branches. These service hour reductions account for $1.2 million.

To disenfranchise any communities and restrict service in those areas penalizes those citizens who do not have the good fortune to reside in another community. Many who utilize our libraries are unable to travel to the few branchess open on Fridays and Sundays, and since all branches will be closing earlier, afternoon and evening activities will be significantly restricted. All of this comes at a time when Library services are more in demand than ever.”

Gates Foundation strengthens Library’s Job Resource Center November 2, 2009

The Gates Foundation’s $50,000 grant to The Seattle Public Library, announced this week, will strengthen the services of The Job Resource Center located at Central library.  The Center, opened on June 29, 2009 with initial grant money from Friends of The Seattle Public Library, operates in partnership with WorkSource Seattle-King County. It features six computers with generous two hour  time limits and enhanced job search tools.  Chance Hunt, Assistant Director of Public Services for the library, announced during National Friends of The Library week that 1000 people used the Job Resource Center in September ‘09.

Sylvia Rolle spoke on KUOW about her positive experience with the Center. “…it’s really just changed my whole outlook on getting a job in this tough climate,” she said.

“I don’t have a computer,” Selena Wimmer told us in our library value survey, ”I’ve been able to work on developing my writing skills because of the access the computer lab offers. In addition, I was able to find a job using the job resource area.”

Southwest patron Judith Parlin writes, “I am recently unemployed after 33 years at the same company. I use the computers to research for jobs and to sign up for my weekly unemployment checks.”

Several people, responding to our library value survey, cited the library as their primary location for job resources including Misha, a Capitol Hill and U District branch library patron, who writes, “I have many friends like myself who have given up paying for internet services at home. After being laid off for over a year one friend can’t even afford an internet cafe & sold her lap top, so the library computers are her only option for applying for jobs, as the nearest worksource office is two (recently increased fare) bus rides away from where she is staying.”

In many neighborhoods, library branches are  the only convenient and free location for computer access and job hunting services.

Please support library funding in the 2010 budget

We urge you to restore current service hours October 27, 2009

At tonite’s Budget Hearing, Friends of The Seattle Public Library board member, Tony Provine, noted that “In many parts of Seattle, libraries serve as community centers, meeting places, job resources, social service centers, public education facilities, and much more. They provide safe havens for at risk youth and offer homework assistance for students. They provide shelter and internet communications for the impoverished. They are anchors in each of their communities.” He told Council that the rise in use, over the last 8 years, contrasts with a comparatively stagnant budget. The current operating hours, such as Mondays and Tuesdays opening at 1 pm, are a result of reductions in 2002. “The proposed cuts would reduce (current) service hours by 23% overall and would result in reductions of 37% at several branches. With 21 branches limiting access to 35 hours a week, residents who rely on the Library in these communites would be affected disproportionately. The effect of these cuts will undermine our neighborhoods, communities and the entire City of Seattle,” he said. “The Friends of The Seattle Public Library urge you to restore $1.2 million  to the Library’s budget to allow the Library to continute to operate all of its branches at their current service hours.”

“Think outside the box” to fund libraries October 27, 2009

Josephine waited 2 1/2 hours tonite for an opportunity to ask council to “think outside the box” to find some way to keep our libraries open. She suggested that The Seattle Public Library try to fund itself like King County Library. Weeks ago, during the Library’s Budget Presentation, Councilmember Conlin wondered if there were some way to change the library’s funding structure. Right now, the library is classified as a “non-taxing authority” and, as such, can’t levy for operational money. All operational money must come from the City of Seattle’s General Fund. Capital maintanence, funds which are also deeply impacted by the budget crunch, must come from the City’s REET (Real Estate Excise Tax). Because The Library is bound to get funds from these sources it is always in competition with other essential services during tough economic times. Changing the funding structure, however, may be a difficult task.

Vice President of Friends of The Seattle Public Library presents 2000 petition signatures October 27, 2009

Johnson-Fong sorts the petitions

Jennifer Johnson-Fong presented 2000 petition signatures gathered on Facebook and from The Friends of The Seattle Public Library petitioning drive at branch libraries. She said, “Tonite I’ve brought you petitions from: Northeast, Ballard, West Seattle, Wallingford, Greenwood, and Broadview libraries. My experience while collecting signatures has been consistent. I speak to people who use their neighborhood branch for a variety of reasons and I speak to people who depend on their neighborhood branch either for access to public computers that they can get no where else or for access to the free WiFi. Out of 26 branches and Central 21 neighborhood libraries are proposed to be closed Fridays and Sundays and only open 35 hours a week.” Johnson-Fong closed by asking Council to help all the branch libraries that would be impacted by restoring library hours.