libraries

New York library advocates have been working hard these past few weeks after news broke of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed budget cuts, which would cut library funding from $308.5 million in 2011's fiscal year to $223.5 million for 2012 (these depressing numbers are further broken down on the city's Office of Management and Budget website).

If Bloomberg's budget is approved, New York would end up with some very unhappy bookshelves (according to Paul LeClerc, President and CEO of The New York Public Library, almost six million fewer items would be circulated), lots of layoffs (more than one in four library jobs would be eliminated), and drastically cut library hours (NYPLs would be open on average just four days a week). No wonder people have been calling the mayor Bloomzilla.