NEWARK — With millions of dollars in budget cuts slated for the Newark Public Library, one of the city’s most revered cultural institutions will face major reductions in staff and services, according to library officials. Days after the city’s May elections, library leaders were informed they would lose at least $2.45 million in city funding, or nearly 18 percent...
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Newark historian and library trustee Clement Price.
NEWARK — With millions of dollars in budget cuts slated for the Newark Public Library, one of the city’s most revered cultural institutions will face major reductions in staff and services, according to library officials.
Days after the city’s May elections, library leaders were informed they would lose at least $2.45 million in city funding, or nearly 18 percent of the library’s budget. The city typically funds about 90 percent of the library, with the rest coming from grants, donations and state aid. In response to the cuts, the library put together a spending plan that calls for 31 layoffs, salary freezes, branch closures, and two furlough days a week until the end of 2010.
"These were tremendously difficult decisions for the trustees," library director Wilma Grey said in a statement. "We can no longer maintain all of our facilities and services."
The employee furloughs will force all branches to close on Mondays and Tuesdays, starting in mid-August and continuing through December. The First Avenue and Madison branches will be completely shuttered. Only the main branch will remain open on Saturdays.
To Newark historian and library trustee Clement Price, the cuts represent one of the institution’s darkest hours.
"There are two episodes in the Newark Library’s history that are similarly frightening: The depression of the 1930s and former mayor Hugh Addonizio’s stark musings about closing the library after the riots," said Price, a trustee for close to 25 years. "This is far scarier because this is real. The cuts are all but in place."
According to Price and Grey, the library, aside from being renowned in its own rite, is of major importance to a city like Newark, where so many low-income residents rely on its services.
Price said the library serves as "a quiet, wholesome, safe space to read, to check out books, to get your tax returns done, to get on the internet, to do your homework and to feel as if you are a part of civil society."
Because of the budget shortfall, children’s programs will be cut, computer classes for adults will be cut, and the budget for purchasing books and databases will be cut. The library will also lay off all 14 "special police security officers" and all 17 of its pages.
"Those are young Newarkers, most of whom are black and Hispanic," Price said of the pages, who move and stack books. "That really hurts me. One of my first jobs when I was a kid in D.C. was at the library, moving books."
Newark officials declined to comment on the library funding reductions. But the cuts come as the city faces a $180 million budget hole, employee furloughs and massive layoffs of its own.
Calling the library a "civic first responder," Price said the library should receive a special dispensation. Supporters such as Jerry Caprio, president of the Friends of the Newark Public Library, urged residents to protest.
"Now the library needs the support of the community," Caprio said. "I am urging anyone who loves books or who has benefited from the library in any way to pick up the phone or send an e-mail to their elected officials to show their support for this essential treasure."
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