D.C. Mayor Offers Details on Library Improvements

Mayor Anthony A. Williams offered details March 22 on his plan to refurbish the District of Columbia library system, calling for an $8-million boost to the operating budget to fund additional materials, computers, and furnishings and to restore Sunday hours at some branches. Another $16.25 million would go toward renovations throughout the system.

D.C. Public Library spokeswoman Monica Lewis said the mayor also plans to ask the city council for a $5.5-million addition to this year’s maintenance budget for painting, new carpeting, and other cosmetic changes, the Washington Post reported March 23.

In January a task force appointed by Williams called for more than $450 million in improvements to the system, including a new $280-million headquarters library and replacement of half its collection.

President Bush’s FY 2007 budget proposal includes $30 million in matching funds for the D.C. library system to begin construction on a new central library and renovate branches. Although the mayor’s budget, submitted March 21, doesn’t include funds for a new headquarters, it proposes that proceeds from leasing the current facility go toward the cost of the new building, which the task force estimated at $280 million.

Library board Chair John W. Hill told the Post that Williams’s budget “will go a long way in implementing some of the things suggested in the blue-ribbon panel’s report.”

Posted March 24, 2006.