[Conntech] Stay strong, Bridgeport--Libraries ARE Essential!

[Christine Bradley]

Hi All:
We should be concerned about the threat to Bridgeport's public libraries
posed by Mayor Bill Finch's 2008-2009 budget proposal, which, if enacted,
would see one-third of the library's staff cut. 

I thank our colleagues Karen Ronald of Fairfield and Bina Williams of
Bridgeport for keeping us informed of the local press reporting of this
devastating news. When I asked Scott Hughes, Bridgeport's library director,
if there was anything that we, as a library community, could do to help, he
allowed that letters to Mayor Bill Finch certainly wouldn't hurt, but that
spreading this news far beyond the Bridgeport area could also be helpful.
(Scott proposed a conservative budget of $5.3M to the Mayor, who then
recommended a budget of $2.9M, an amount which would return the library back
to its 1991 budget, when the city was last faced with layoffs.)

Equally alarming to all of us may be Mayor Finch's claim that "Libraries are
not essential services," as reported in the Connecticut Post on Wednesday,
April 2. (http://www.connpost.com/localnews/ci_8776211?source=email)

This past Saturday, when Norwalk's public library director Les Kozerowitz
introduced Sam Weller, author of "The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray
Bradbury," to kick off Norwalk's Big Read, he also took the opportunity to
underscore the importance of public libraries, lauding Norwalk's mayor
Moccia for being supportive while just a couple of towns away Bridgeport
Mayor Bill Finch announced cuts in library staff.
(http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_8838782)

As Les says, we all understand the economics of the situation which
Bridgeport's mayor faces, but libraries are not non-essential services. Les
shares this quote from Ray Bradbury on the occasion of his accepting the
2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the
National Book Foundation, "Who you are honoring tonight is not only myself,
but the ghost of a lot of your favorite writers, and I wouldn't be here
except that they spoke to me in the library. The library's been the center
of my life. I never made it to college. I started going to the library when
I graduated from high school. I went to the library everyday for three or
four days a week for ten years. And I graduated from the library when I was
28." 

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 9, a public hearing is planned in the Council
Chamber of Bridgeport City Hall, 45 Lyon Terrace, on both the municipal and
education segments of the spending package. Public comments will be allowed
at this session. Certainly, if any of you are Bridgeport residents, this
would be an opportunity to speak up for your library colleagues. Also, on
Friday, April 11, at 6:30 p.m., a session is planned on the library budget.
That meeting, at which there will be no public comments, will take place in
the Wheeler Room of City Hall.

Stay strong, Bridgeport! We're with you.

Christine Bradley, Executive Director
Connecticut Library Consortium
234 Court Street
Middletown, Connecticut 06457
Phone: 860-344-8777 ext. 103
Fax: 860-344-9199
cbradley at ctlibrarians.org
www.ctlibrarians.org

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