On a Friday afternoon inside Olneyville library, local spoken word poet Lawrence Nunes sang about dreams and determination in high, wavering tones. Most of the audience didn’t know that the walls reverberating with his words no longer belonged to Providence Public Library (PPL), but Providence Community Library (PCL). Few patrons knew, for that matter, that if PCL hadn’t been determined to take over operations from PPL, Olneyville Library might have closed its doors. Permanently.
To most patrons, the library looks the same as it always has. The same dirt-streaked windows. The same snap-shots of grinning children scotch-taped to magazine racks. The same staff giving love advice along with book suggestions. According to Linda Kushner, co-founder of the Providence Community Library—which began as a grassroots organization—this continuity marks a major victory.
First and foremost, PCL’s goal was to “keep the libraries open,” she said.
On July 1, 2009, PCL became the official administrators of the nine neighborhood libraries after PPL, facing a longstanding budget deficit, repeatedly threatened to close five of these nine branches. At first, the volume of book acquisitions ebbed as PCL struggled to find its footing. But Kushner now reports that despite start-up challenges, the libraries are not only open, but thriving. Usage of the nine neighborhood libraries rose 32 percent over the previous November, she noted.
PCL cannot take all the credit for this jump, Kushner admits. The economic recession should also take a bow. According to Albert Greco, a professor of business administration at Fordham University who closely monitors library finances, many unemployed depend on library computers to search for jobs. Likewise, wealthier Americans cancel their magazine subscriptions and spend more hours in libraries than they did before the recession, Greco said.
Providence libraries are no exception. In a typical workday, Olneyville librarian John Cioci helps patrons with online job applications, resume formatting, and apartment searches.
But PCL’s success bucks another national trend. Since the recession began, public library systems across the country—including Philadelphia and Trenton, NJ—have threatened to close branches because of declining tax revenues. Due to state budget cuts, the Boston Public Library is currently considering closing up to ten of its branches. That a community group chose to confront these same economic challenges and keep library doors open makes Providence unique.
The Library Reform Group
It was a bright summer day in 2004 when Ms. Kushner first met future PCL vice-president Patricia Raub on the steps of Providence’s central library on Empire Street. Bright except for the fact that PPL had just laid off 21 workers, including Mr. Cioci, who had worked in the library system for eight years. Ms. Raub’s small gray eyes peered over a white megaphone at the assembled crowd. Library employees waved handmade signs and beat saucepans with metal spoons as she shouted, “‘Put the public back into the public library!’”
The rally did not stop PPL from firing the 21 workers. But it did bring Raub, Kushner, and other concerned citizens together. Ms. Raub, a professor of American Studies at Providence College, called the presidents of all the library friends groups, along with union organizer Karen McAninch, public accountant Ellen Schwartz, and business consultant Marcus Mitchell. The group of 12 assembled in Linda Kushner’s living room to discuss what they didn’t like about PPL, christening themselves the Library Reform Group.
For the next four years, the Library Reform Group mobilized library patrons to protest branch closure and fought to increase public representation on PPL’s library board. But in December of 2008, the group decided that trying to change the existing system was “a royal waste of time,” Kushner says. Preoccupied with the Central Library on Empire Street, PPL just didn’t understand the community value of the nine branches, Kushner said. So the group changed tactics.
That month, the group formed a corporation under the title “Providence Community Library.” After just 11 months of research and planning, the group made its intentions public with an offer to Mayor David Cicilline: give us the money that PPL says is not enough to run the nine branches, and we will run the nine branches.
PCL’s demonstrated interest in the neighborhood libraries made it the obvious choice, Cicilline said. It became “clear that PPL no longer wanted to be in the neighborhood branch business,” he said. “You can’t force somebody to operate a system they don’t want to operate.”
The City Council approved PCL’s proposal. The Library Reform Group—most of whose members had never actually worked in a library—had just inherited the largest library system in the state.
From PPL’s perspective, the transfer of city funding to PCL marked the “tragic end” to a tale of municipal negligence, said William Simmons, president of PPL’s board of trustees. Its endowment “creamed” by the recession, PPL had explored creative solutions in order to keep the branches open, said Simmons. But negotiating with the city about alternative solutions was like “talking into a closet with no lights,” he said.
However, Simmons does not hold a grudge against PCL.
“If they can run it for less” he said, “everybody wins.”
Dreams Meets Reality
To keep up their end of the deal, the group had to mobilize their system in only two months. Phone circuits had to be rewired. Internet cables exchanged. Administrators hired.
“We didn’t get much sleep in those days,” recalls Ms. Raub.
Relying on the expertise of veteran librarians to keep the system afloat, the founders celebrated PCL’s official opening on July 1, 2009 with book donations, storytelling performances, and potlucks at each community library. But for Maurine Romans, Chairman of the PCL Friends Group, the sweetest celebration was the hanging of signs over the libraries’ stone and brick facades, reading: “under new management.”
According to Raub, the larger name change from “branch libraries” to “community libraries” reflects an important shift in values. To ensure active community involvement, one community library “liaison” is elected from each of the nine library friends groups. Particular program offerings are decided by the community, not by PCL’s administrators, she said.
Any afternoon should find reading rooms full of adults drinking coffee, listening to music and discussing community initiatives, Raub said. Raub also envisions the libraries as public spaces for art exhibitions and musical performances, she added
In PCL’s vision, the libraries will become “building blocks for rebuilding neighborhoods,” Raub said. Many of the libraries serve poor communities, and renovations to library buildings may spark larger revitalization efforts, Raub said, noting Smith Hill Library’s location in the center of Candace Street’s construction projects.
Ongoing challenges
Now in its eighth month of operation, PCL remains an organization in transition. The six administrators share cramped—hopefully temporary—office space in the basement of South Providence Community Library at 441 Prairie Avenue. Five of those six share a room that used to be a computer lab; they maneuver around knee-high stacks of fundraising envelopes just to reach the door.
But the office space may be the least of their worries. Until PPL turns over the property leases to the city, they note, PCL cannot apply for grants to perform major renovations.
Structural damage to the buildings demand such renovations, says PCL Business Director Sue Gibbs. The decayed roofs of both Wanscuck and Smith Hill Library require a total of $135,000 in repairs, Gibbs estimates.
Nevertheless, both Gibbs and Mayor Cicilline are optimistic about PCL’s financial sustainability.
PCL has successfully boosted fundraising efforts and community support for the libraries, Cicilline said. Despite severe pressures on the municipal budget, “we’re going to work hard to protect funding for the community libraries,” he said.
Mr. Simmons is not so optimistic. Before PPL turns over the buildings’ lease Simmons wants proof that PCL can sustain itself financially for the long term. Though negotiations with the city have been “moving forward,” an exact date for the lease transfer has not been set, he said.
Loyal Fans
The windows of Washington Park Library on 1316 Broad Street could use some scrubbing. The rough wooden window frames could use some paint. But to twelve-year-old Emily Lima, her library is beautiful.
“It’s an old building but it looks like new,” she said.
Lima comes to the Washington Park library every day after school to read, play chess, and hang out with friends. Though librarian Lanham Bundy often worries that Lima’s energy will burn down the building, she admits that Lima has become one of the library’s most eloquent spokespeople.
“I like everything about the library,” Lima says, spraying an art table with blue disinfectant. “There’s a person right by your side. And you can make friends like that!” She snaps.
“Ooh and you can read books!” interjects her brother, seven year-old Nathan Lima, as he glues construction paper windows onto his cardboard skyscraper.
Emily Lima rolls her eyes. Every library has books, she informs him. But Washington Park Library is special because “everybody cares about it. Everybody.”
Juliana Friend B’12 thinks the Rock may have some competition.
