Library Advocates Coalition Presents Its Recommendations Feb. 26. Members of the Library Advocates Coalition held a press conference today to present their recommendations for reviving public trust in PPL, improving the Library's system of governance, and restoring its fiscal integrity. The Library Advocates Coalition is a public fact-finding group that has hosted a series of public forums over the past few months. Based upon the insights the Coalition has gained from these forums, it is urging PPL to maintain all nine branches, keep the Central Library and the branches intact as one unit, replace the current PPL administration, exercise more effective oversight of its fiscal operations, and add more publicly appointed Board members in exchange for an increase in City funding. To read the entire list of Library Advocates Coalition recommendations, click here. PPL Employees Approve Contract Feb. 2. By a vote of 62 to 7, the employees of the Providence Public Library have approved a first contract with the library with retroactive raises to last July 1. The contract will expire June 30, 2009. Approximately 90 librarians, specialists and clerks voted to join the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island on September 7, 2005. USAW-RI also represents library workers at Brown University, as well as Facilities employees at Brown, Bryant, PPL and UNICCO at Bank of America. Sodexho dining service employees at Bryant are also in the union. The union drive at the Providence Public Library resulted from large scale layoffs in the summer of 2004 and lack of confidence in the administration of the library. A no-confidence vote was taken during the period of negotiations, at which time several non-union employees also voted no-confidence. Proposals including the one announced recently to consider selling the Central Library continue to exacerbate the strong feelings of insecurity by both the staff and the public about the library's future and raise questions about whether PPL decision-makers have the ability or the will to make the right decisions regarding the future of the library system. Fun and Promises at Washington Park Read-In With wonderful weather, the Washington Park Read-in on Oct. 3rd was a big success! A host of willing readers including community members, youngsters, politicians, and professional story tellers entertained the audience with selections from favorite novels, poems, autobiographies and fables. After listening for several hours, a 10-year-old girl who had come to the event with her library card in hand because she thought the Washington Park Branch was actually reopening that day, asked when we were going to have another Read-In! Was it fun? Yes. Did we get the branch reopened — not yet! But we were successful in focusing public attention on the disgraceful closure of the Washington Park Branch and in establishing that there is $500,000 available for renovating and reopening this much missed branch ($100,000 from a generous challenge grant by Alan Shawn Feinstein and $400,000 earmarked in the city's master lease for Washington Park). What's more. Council President John Lombardi promised that the City Council would put libraries front and center on its agenda. The main challenge now is to convince the Providence Public Library and the City to start immediately to repair the library and reopen its doors to local patrons. Empire Branch Is Shelved Two years after spending $200,000 to move the entrance of the PPL to Empire Street and to establish a separate "branch library" at the Central Library, the Providence Public Library has decided to shelve that plan. "It was an administrative nightmare," a library worker said. Library advocates who opposed the creation of the "branch" hope that the PPL will take this opportunity to reopen the Library's grand Washington Street entrance and restore the Central Library Reference Department to its former size. For more information about this issue, click here.