Posted June 17, 2005.

Providence Citizens Rally to Urge Library Bylaws Reform

A library advocacy group sponsored a rally June 13 at Providence (R.I.) City Hall to call for basic changes in the makeup of the city library’s board of trustees. The Library Reform Group, created in 2004 after the city council urged the Providence Public Library board to be more accountable to the public, seeks more public representation on the board, even though it is set up as a private, nonprofit corporation.

LRG Chair Patricia Raub said the rally was held to convince Mayor David N. Cicilline and city council that reform was needed to correct the “disregard for the taxpayers and library users” exemplified by last year’s layoffs of 21 staff members. The group believes that both the city and the state should have the right to appoint some voting members of the PPL board, that the Friends groups should be represented, and that board meetings should be open to the public and the press.

The demonstration drew support from Council President John J. Lombardi and Councilor David Segal. “The taxpayers of Providence have provided the Providence Public Library with $3 million or more each year,” Segal said in the June 14 Providence Journal. “But the people of Providence have almost no say as to how that money is spent and it’s time to change that.”

Posted June 17, 2005.