Camden, N.J., saves its libraries

Last week, the library board in Camden, N.J. announced its intention to close all three library branches by the end of 2010, effectively shutting its entire system. Proposed cuts to the budget were so severe that the libraries would not even have been able to maintain a single branch; rather than leave books on shelves, waiting for a better financial day, the library board planned to auction, donate, store or destroy all its materials. Camden, one of the nation's poorest cities, is suffering a tremendous budget crisis.

On Monday, Mayor Dana Redd announced that the Camden library system had a lifeline: It will join the county system, pending approval by the City Council.

This will be a vital move for Camden residents, more than 150,000 of whom use the city libraries each year. Fewer than a third of residents have high-speed Internet in their homes. The Philadelphia Inquirer visited the library last week:

On Thursday at the main library in downtown Camden, Gabrielle Simmons, 21, applied for a job on the Internet while her 3-year-old son, Cameron, squirmed on her lap.

Simmons is an unemployed single mother who relies on the library to apply for jobs; many workplaces now only accept online applications. She was busy Thursday applying for a job at Old Navy in the Cherry Hill Mall.

Next to her sat Timothy Thomson, 32, who was laid off from Verizon last year. He comes to the library twice a week to check out self-help books and apply for jobs.

The plight of Camden's library may be extreme, but it is not unique. The New York Public Library managed to avoid extreme cuts, but libraries in Virginia have not been so lucky. Libraries in  Stamford, Conn., might be forced to close. And the Los Angeles Public Library has curtailed its hours because of budget cuts.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Jan Anasa Fisher, a disabled veteran, reads at the Camden Library. Credit: Jessica Kourkounis / Associated Press

Comments

[Peter323]

Depletion of our public libararies is a sign of a crumbling civilization.

[Giles Slade]

Libraries are reinventing themselves as bastions of social capital during the economic downturn. No longer simple community repositories of literature and information, they've become the place unemployed people go to search for jobs and to get help finding work. Municipal budgets need to reflect the fact that these institutions have become essential services and that the job of librarian has changed to include being purveyors and guides to the complexity of Internet resources and even employment councilors. The end of the print book has no killed libraries, they are busily reinventing themselves.

[Kenneth Henderson]

I am glad I am living in Melbourne Australia. All our libraries are going from strength to strength and I belong to three city systems which I use weekly or more often. There are at least 4 branches in every suburban city. They are large, modern, have ethnic sections in all media, computers, on-line catalogs and some are dropping reservation fees for books already out, new stock is constant and the staff numerous. The opening hours are excellent & there are special events for kids with librarians doing weekly book readings. There is heating and cooling. What else can I say. We are truly, at this time, The Lucky Country.

I read the LA strife a few months ago and I was appalled at the callous situation by the libraries there. We also have major school libraries with major computer rooms. New school facilities are being completed all over the country in the past year with Federal funds.

Having lived on & off in the Detroit urban area of Lincoln Park during the 1970s I saw unbelievable cutbacks in education, police & other services, school boards with too much influence and rivalry in board members and so on. I have never seen the likes of all that in my hometown city or across the country. I have a lot of family in Lincoln Park and I don't envy their cutbacks. In fact in my time there I met guys working in supermarkets managers or other roles because it paid better than teaching or other public service work.