My Green Lake | Seattle's Green Lake Blog

A proposed hours reduction at the Seattle Public Library may mean that the Green Lake Library will be closed on Fridays and Sundays, plus operate at reduced hours, in 2010.

The Friends of Seattle Public Library write:

Councilmembers Burgess, Harrell, and Licata are championing a restoration of 1.2 million dollars to the 2010 budget which will keep our libraries open next year with the same operating hours we enjoy this year.

Unfortunately none of the options Council put forward will stop our libraries from closing for a one week furlough, but we think a one week closure is more than enough.

We want no further cuts to hours but we need your help convincing undecided Councilmembers to vote for Option A, restoration of many hours the mayor’s budget caused our libraries to cut in 2010. Join the final call to action in support of neighborhood library branch hours.

[Friends of Seattle Public Library Blog]

Check out the Friends of Seattle Public Library Blog for the text of an email you can send now to undecided council members.

Green Laker Rebecca Albiani shows the library some love:

“On a typical Sunday outing we’ll take our bikes and scooters down to the lake, have breakfast, play at the playground, go to the library and go home,” Greenlake patron Rebecca Albiani told us over morning coffee.  The library serves an important role in both her family and professional life. Her eldest son, 8, “is an avid reader; it would bankrupt us to keep him in books by purchasing them,” she said. His current reading list: Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians, Septimus Heap books,  and 39 Clues. The youngest son, 6, “memorizes books so he needs a constant flow of simple stories as he learns to read.”

In professional life, Rebecca “gives talks for general audiences at the Frye Art Museum.” For the past ten years she’s lectured on everything from ancient Egypt to Pop Art. “I couldn’t do that without the library. Every month I have a new topic. 95 percent of my research materials come from the public library,” she said. Wouldn’t the UW Art Library be a stronger resource, we wondered, but Rebecca said the public library’s catalogue is usually ample. “The public library has THE book on the Index of American Design, for instance, which is the New Deal program I’ll be lecturing on in December. I could get a UW library card but it’s so much more convenient to walk to my public library [Greenlake Walkscore: 89] where I know people who work there and I don’t have to worry about parking.”

“The library is a crucial leveling factor. Plus it is simply a wonderful community gathering place” she told us. “When I think about the proposed library budget I worry about Saturday hours and Sunday closures in particular. On Sunday I see people on computers or sitting in the magazine section—that’s where my husband goes. There are always a lot of families reading to kids or kids coloring. At the playground I often hear moms saying, “Shall we go to the library now?”

[Friends of Seattle Public Library Blog]