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Task Force Recommends D.C. Library OverhaulThe District of Columbia Public Library needs more than $450 million in improvements—including a new $280-million headquarters library, 400 new computers, and replacement of half its collection over the next three years—according to a draft report released January 17 by a task force organized in 2004 by Mayor Anthony A. Williams.“We’re five decades behind where we should be,” said task force member Terrance Lynch in the January 18 Washington Post. “Our kids are going to their grandmothers’ libraries in the computer age.” Other suggestions for the system include expanding and reorganizing staff, rebuilding most neighborhood branches, adding cafés and bookstores to some branches, and offering wireless and high-speed internet access at every facility. Although panel members said the city would seek public and private funds for the plan, they did not detail how it would do so. Leonard Minsky of the D.C. Library Renaissance Project, founded in 2002 by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, criticized the task force for releasing the report just a few hours before the launch of a series of “listening sessions” to solicit public input on transforming the library system. “It shows real contempt for the public and for real public input,” he said. Task force chair John W. Hill, chief executive of the Federal City Council, said the group originally hadn’t planned to release the draft report because it didn’t want the public to wrongly think its recommendations were final. However, Hill ultimately relented after public criticism. “When you don’t provide information that people are asking for, then they think something else is happening,” he said. Posted January 20, 2006. |
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