Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library

I am a resident of Mecklenburg County and a proud supporter of and volunteer in our public libraries. Many of you may have heard in the past couple of weeks the major budget issues going on in our library. The Public Library had to return $2 million to the County to cover a gap in the budget for the fiscal year 09-10 and then next year the public libraries are looking at a 50% funding decrease from the county. To fix the short-term budget gap the library originally planned to close 12 branches and lay off 140+ people, however there was a huge public out cry and the library came up with a new plan involving staff pay cuts, cuts in services and hours, and no collections budget for the rest of the year, but they are keeping all of the branches open.

Is it sacreligious for a future librarian to say that I think they should have closed some of the library branches? Because that is how I feel. I really do love our public libraries, however there are some which are located very close to each other. In the small area that comprises downtown Charlotte there are 3 libraries (Main, Imaginon, and Check-it Outlet). I personally think one of those 3 (Check-it outlet) could have been closed without a lot of loss of service or convienence. There are a couple other branches which could have been closed as well because they are located very near other branches.

I am not trying to be tright, honestly I wish none of the branches had to close and no one had to be laid off, but if the library had to cut $2 million dollars I think there are better ways to do it then how they did it. Cutting the collection budget, services offered, and salaries will make for more grumpy patrons and grumpy librarians, than if patrons had to drive an extra mile to get to a library branch. I know some library employees who now say they are going to have to find second jobs in order to make ends meet with this pay cut.

In hard fiscal times like these there are hard decisions to be made. It scares me even more to think about what the library will try to do to cope with a 50% budget decrease for next year. I know that they will have to start closing libraries then and perhaps even lay off more people. We need to support our libraries and the services that they provide (most of which are free because you paid for them with your tax dollars). Please consider talking to your county commissioners or donate to the library.