Three neighborhood branches of the Detroit Public Library will be reopened in the next fiscal year, Director Maurice Wheeler announced at the city council’s first hearing on the library’s $40-million budget for 2000–2001.
Wheeler said the budget “will help us start bringing back some of the services that we’ve lost over the years. It will help us stabilize the system,” the Detroit News reported April 28.
Much of the budget meeting concentrated on continuing problems at the library, which has suffered financial difficulties and service cutbacks since the 1980s. Wheeler conceded that, at a time when he wants to expand library hours, there are still about 65 unfilled library positions. He was also closely questioned by a council member about his recent attempts to reclassify library positions so they did not require a master’s in library science and about union contract negotiations.
The library only recently reached a contract with the union representing support staff to replace a contract that expired June 30, 1998; the library has also reached a tentative contract with the union representing DPL librarians.
Posted May 8, 2000.