Federation of Friends

The Federation of Friends of the DC Public Library elected new officers on October 28, 2009. The 2010-2011 Executive Committee of the Federation is:

• President – Susan Haight (West End)
• Vice-President – vacant*
• Secreatary – Wendy Blair (Literary Friends)
• Treasurer – Richard Huffine (Mt. Pleasant)

* Sharon Turner (Woodridge) agreed to continue serving until a Vice President can be appointed by the Executive Committee.

The next meeting of the Federation is scheduled for 8:00 am, Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, 4th floor, 901 G Street, NW.

The funding for the DC Public Library for FY10 is about 11% less than funding for FY09. In addition, the library must accommodate some cost increases within this budget. This forces them to make changes in the way they provide library services to District residents. In making these decisions, they want to be sure of the following:

1. We will provide as many hours of library service each week as we can with these reduced resources.
2. When the library is open, we will provide the books, technology and other library services that library users expect.
3. We will open 6 new libraries in FY10, and we will celebrate this improvement in library service throughout the District.

The changes listed below will go into effect on October 5th 2009:

• Monday thru Saturday, Neighborhood Libraries will remain open with current hours (2 evenings, 3 mornings, Saturday 9:30am – 5:30pm).
• Neighborhood Libraries will not be open Sunday afternoons.
• The schedule at Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial Library will change. On Monday and Tuesday the Library will be open from noon until 9:00 pm (current hours are 9:30am – 9:00pm).
• Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial Library will be open every Sunday afternoon, 1 – 5 pm.
• No library will be open on Monday holidays.
• By the end of October, the garage at Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial Library will no longer be available to the general public – an access card will be required for entry. This will allow security staff to be re-directed to neighborhood libraries.
• The addition of alarms and more sophisticated security technology at the Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial Library will allow some security staff to be re-directed to neighborhood libraries.
• In order to provide library service directly to the public, some staff will be reassigned from CYS and Collections to neighborhood libraries.
• The Extreme Mobile will not be in use during FY10.

In their recent budget process, the Mayor and the City Council made further reductions to the Library’s FY 2010 budget because of a worse-than-projected revenue forecast that was announced in May. The Mayor reduced the Library’s operating budget by $4.1 million or 8.9% for FY 2010. City Council, in their deliberations on Friday, further reduced the Library’s budget by $7.3 million or 16%. This is a significant cut. Library administrators don’t yet know how it will impact the Library. However, if the Mayor approves this budget, the Library will need to operate very differently than it does now.

We all know the important role libraries play, particularly during tough economic times. Use of the Library has never been greater. DCPL staff are committed to providing DC residents with the best service possible with the resources they have.