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Budget Cuts Force NYPL to Reduce HoursMost libraries in the New York Public Library system—the largest of the city’s three systems—will cut back to a five-day week over the coming months as the result of a July city-government request to cut all agency budgets by 7.5%. All four of the city’s research libraries, which had been open six days a week, will be open only Tuesdays through Saturdays as of early September. In October, 67 of the central system’s 85 branches will shift to a five-day week. NYPL President Paul LeClerc said in the August 31 New York Times that at a minimum, one library in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx will remain open seven days a week, and another 15 branches will stay on a six-day schedule. The city’s library systems had already adjusted to a 5% budget reduction, part of the citywide spending plan adopted last June. The most recent budget-cut request in July reduced NYPL’s $120-million, city-financed budget by $12.5 million, on top of the $2-million cut already implemented. The library receives an additional $100 million from federal, state, and private sources. “We had no choice but to take this extremely seriously, as regretful as we might be,” LeClerc said. “The forecast for the city budget deficit for next year is as bad, if not worse, as this year. So I think we are looking at a two-year cycle of difficult times.” Posted September 9, 2002. |
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