All:WM: Here's some info that might help you think about the library:
The question of which scenarios the List Members would pick, among the various choices on the closing of neighborhood libraries or reduction in services, poses a valid question. But, there may be a finger on the scales as far as the official decision is concerned.
Circulation of materials in 2002: Downtown 815,724 Community Ls: 2,182,665
Patron visits in 2002: Downtown 609,667 Community Ls; 2,224,396
Visits by school classes: DT: 220 att.4,543 CLs: 577 att. 10,973
Programs in 2002: Downtown 187 with 6,146 attendees Community Ls: 7,092 with 54,043 att.
Most used community and district libraries: Washburn, Walker, Hosmer, North Regional and maybe East Lake.
I'd like to be able to report staffing (floor staff only) but I cannot. However, my impression is that Washburn must have about a dozen, most FT staff, Walker maybe one less, Hosmer 4 FT and downtown, maybe 100.
WM: The question with Walker, as I understand it, is being viewed from the perspective that moving Walker out of the 3-block radius of Lake and Hennepin will save a huge amount. The other issue is that just across the street at the Old Walker is---the Old Walker library is an historical objet d'art at this point. It can be sold, maybe, but the parameters of the buyer have narrowed with historical designation. However, fixing the Walker parking lot will cost a bucket. Is it worth the cost? It cannot expand without parking by law. Same for the Old Walker. Is the trade-off one of getting off the bus line, where it is most useful? How do you weigh that figure?One official option includes the closing of Walker Library in Uptown. Walker is one of the more heavily-used of the neighborhood libraries.
WM: The usage alone tells you that the Walker needs to be there. The bigger question is how should it be there and should if be exactly there.... the question is whether Uptown NEEDS more: one good and well-used library or more shops/apartments. (And one factor to consider in that is that the second floor of Calhoun Square is largely vacant now.)
WM: You can always make a good case for keeping Walker. However, it's not strategic to think of it in isolation since a solid case can be made for each neighborhood library, including tiny Weber Park and Roosevelt.To be clear, I'm not saying that converting Walker to shops/apartments is an illegal, immoral, or fattening choice. I am saying that the public input needs to have the same information that is available to those who are making the official decision.
To also be clear, I think that closing any library is a bum decision.WM: Agreed, but we are firmly impaled on the horns of a dilemma here. However, I do think one of the horns includes, on my part, a rejection of all three scenarios because none looks strategically viable--or maybe strategically smart, rather than viable. Couple that with a new director who should not be asked to make this decision before the end of her first year at the library. Unfortunately, the deadline is July 30th, I think. She has to have made the decision by then.
Please go to the meetings the library is holding, be prepared with a strategy if you have strategic skills and come prepared to be helpful so that criticism is tempered with care. There is not one person in the library system who is disinterested in this outcome, even those who know they will be laid off, those who may be laid off, and those who should be laid off. Services are going to be cut, one way or another and it's heart breaking and has to be done in fewer than six weeks.
WM: Then the question becomes one of choosing how to maximize your strength and minimize your losses.However, the city only has a choice between which bum decisions it is going to implement.
WM: I want more than just a memory for voting purposes. Libraries have been undefended by states, cities, municipalities, etc. for too many years in this state. How many of you will be willing to go the legislature on a regular basis until you can educate them enough so that their commitment becomes more than a formal, "Of course we always fund libraries, fo-fo-fo, harumpf, harumpf...." If we wanna be a brain power state, then we have to feed the little gray cells on a regular basis.And everyone in Minnesota should remember having to close libraries and/or cut library services when the Pawlenty administration comes around asking for re-election and crowing about coming through with its "no new taxes" pledge.
WizardMarks, Central
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