The city did not cut the Brooklyn Public Library’s budget for the first time in five years.
The budget, which was tentatively passed by the council this week, gives back the $29.6 million it had threatened to take away from the Library’s annual financing during the yearly kabuki dance that is fiscal negotiations, and that news had bookworms hopeful that there will be no layoffs or closures this year.
“This is a huge victory for us,” said Christian Zabriskie, executive director of Urban Librarians Unite, a library advocacy group.
Almost $15 million were cut from the Library’s budget since 2008, and the book-borrowing system has shed 170 jobs during that time.
So this year’s budget approval has staffers cheering.
“The full restoration ensures that we will be able to continue providing world-class service to the 60 communities we serve every day,” said Library chief Linda Johnson.
The Library has been a lightening rod for controversy since plans to close and sell two branches — the Brooklyn Heights branch on Cadman Plaza West and the Prospect Branch on the edge of Park Slope — were announced earlier in the year. Since that time, Library officials have claimed they will consider ways to keep the Prospect Branch, which is an historic Carnegie Library that many residents don’t want to see demolished.
Reach reporter Danielle Furfaro at dfurfaro@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2511. Follow her at twitter.com/DanielleFurfaro.
