Frantic messages with hashtags of #cmlibrary and #2millioninoneweek are dotting the twitterverse about efforts to avert—or at least allay—sudden plans to close 12 branches of the Charlotte Mecklenburg (N.C.) Library and lay off 148 library workers April 3. The startling March 17 announcement was followed the next day by a library board meeting at which trustees revealed which of the library’s 24 locations were slated to be shuttered.
Among the libraries listed for closure are several that were recently renovated and a brand-new facility, the Hickory Hills branch, that opened earlier this year.
The sudden crisis stems from Mecklenburg County officials scrambling to close a $13.2-million budget gap for the current fiscal year by reducing funds already allocated to county departments; the library is being forced to return $2 million, or 6.3% of its current-year budget, only three months before the June 30 end of the fiscal year.
“I’m feeling kind of numb,” library Director Charles Brown told American Libraries about the massive cuts, which are the worst since the Great Depression when the library closed altogether. “To lose $2 million in the last quarter and to have only three months to absorb that is what has driven the layoffs, and the layoffs have driven the library closings,” he explained, adding that Mecklenburg County provides 88% of the library’s funding. The reduction comes on top of $4 million in reductions since January 2009 that the library board absorbed through salary and benefit concessions, cutting the collection budget, and “behind-the-scenes” operations, he said.
Brown went on to laud the staff’s dedication despite the crisis. “As you can imagine, many staff members are absolutely distraught, but a far larger number have really not missed a beat in terms of a very positive attitude and a commitment to a high degree of service to the community even in the face of all of this. That’s also been heartbreaking—in a different kind of way.”
Staff morale was bolstered, Brown said, by Friends President Harriet Smith urging county residents to swiftly donate the needed $2 million prior to the library board’s March 18 approval of the cutback plan. Smith’s plea motivated board Chair Robin Branstrom to modify the language of employee termination notices by adding the hopeful phrase “unless circumstances change.” In addition to the online fundraising drive, donation boxes have been placed in every branch, and a grassroots Facebook page "$2 million in one week" has been established. Charlotte Mecklenburg's Learning and Development Coordinator Lori Reed tweeted March 19 that more than $35,000 had been raised online as of 4 p.m. Eastern time.
Although the March 19 Charlotte Observer reported that Brown has indicated some library jobs and branches could be restored July 1 if the budget bounces back, the odds in favor of such a comeback seem slender. Mecklenburg County commissioners alerted library officials March 16 that there is an $85-million deficit projected for FY2011; if that becomes a reality, commissioners have indicated they would cut the library budget by another 50%, or $17.5 million. That scenario would leave only two facilities open—the Main Library and the children’s Imaginon Library.
