“To close this would be an outrageous disservice to residents,” community member Carol Kiparsky said in the September 30 San Jose Mercury News. Others also spoke out for maintaining the branch, and council members seemed affected by their pleas, according to the newspaper.
The Palo Alto City Library budget is $5.4 million this year, PACL Acting Director Diane Jennings told American Libraries, and library spending increased 37% over the five years ending June 2002. The plan to close the facility to the public and turn it into administrative offices was one of a series of measures proposed after a $43-million bond issue failed last November with 61.4% of the vote (state law requires a two-thirds majority for passage). The Terman Park branch closed July 1, after the city council determined that library resources could not support six facilities. Among cities over 40,000, Palo Alto has the second-highest per-capita circulation rate in California, but the Terman Park branch reflected only 2.6% of all library visitors and 1.6% of circulation.
Jennings said no formal action was taken at the meeting, but there were many recommendations, and “there will be no immediate closure to public access, as was planned.” Most of the commissioners want to preserve it, she said. One option is to convert only part of the Downtown branch into offices and leave a smaller portion for public use. “I will be putting together an implementation plan for some of the recommendations,” she added.
Posted October 6, 2003.