notaboutthebuildings :: our new website
library reform group :: more concerned individuals
blog :: links to some articles (infrequently updated)
Not About The Buildings!
Libraries Are Awesome.
Why do you think libraries are cool? We've come up with three major reasons:
1) Libraries are centers of neighborhoods, and neighborhoods are awesome! Take a look around your neighborhood and you'll see some really exciting stuff (and exciting people) you didn't even know were there. And the library is the best place place where you can get really involved with your neighborhood. Also, where else can you meet your friends, tutor someone, or set up a business meeting in a friendly and unbranded space?
2) Libraries have an endless supply of information and entertainment. For free! You can go in and research any subject you like, from political history to boating to how to read Korean. You can look stuff up online, check out movies, and find books to read for fun. And nobody can stop you!
3) Books are really awesome! And places dedicated to books are, by extension, also really awesome!
Here at Not About The Buildings, we want people to care about their neighborhoods, care about libraries, and care about books. Unfortunately, libraries (and neighborhoods) in Providence have been threatened for a few years now because library administrators aren't doing much to keep the branches open. Check out our website if you want to know more about that.
For the last year, we've been hosting book-related events around town, from marathon readings at Firehouse 13 to a Spelling Bee for Grown-Ups at AS220. And we've got more coming up, like a book sale at the IndieArts Fest on July 19th.
History
In March of 2007, the Providence Journal and Channel 10 reported that the board of the (privately-owned) Providence Public Library was thinking about selling the century-old library building downtown because parking is tight and the building might be worth a lot of money. (Never mind that the Library is downtown and therefore on just about every conceivable bus or trolley route, or that the building is one of the major architectural landmarks of the city.)
It's one of many weird moves that the Library administration has made in the last few years. In 2004, they laid off 21 library workers. In early 2006, they closed the Washington Park branch with only two days' notice. Then, in spring of 2006, they announced that they were going to close five more branches.
They just made an agreement with the city to keep all the branches open for another year, but a lot of them are going to be open less than five hours a day.
We founded www.notaboutthebuildings.com in the summer of 2006 to bring public awareness to the issue.
It's really, really, REALLY important for people to pressure the library to make sure that branches stay open!
PS-- we're looking to translate notaboutthebuildings into other languages, so if you speak Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, or Khmer (or if you're a web designer that can help out with some technical issues) then we'd love to hear from you.
