Money Woes Force Closure Of Camden's Main Library
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) -- The latest blow to this downtrodden city came Thursday as the downtown branch of the public library was closing for good.
The main branch of the Camden Free Public Library, in a high-ceilinged former bank building, was a victim of the same budget crisis that resulted in layoffs last month of nearly 400 city government employees, including nearly half the police department and one-third of the firefighters.
Now, many residents of this city that ranks among the nation's poorest and most crime-ridden will need to search elsewhere for access to computers or books. The men who play a trash-talking brand of chess in front of the big windows say they'll take their boards to the one remaining branch, a bus ride away.
Prentiss Truluck, one of the chess players, said that remaining library -- modern but remote -- will be stressed with more users.
"They didn't consider the overcrowdedness," he said, predicting long and uneasy waits for the computers there. "There are going to be crimes committed at the library."
The library made news around the world in August when its directors announced plans to close all three branches. No U.S. city this large, with about 80,000 residents, had lost all its libraries before.
The problem was money. The cash-strapped city government, which found its costs mounting, its tax revenues shrinking and its aid from the state reduced, was cutting its contribution to the library system from more than $900,000 last year to less than $300,000.
News of the total shutdown brought a partial rescue. One tiny branch in the remote Fairview neighborhood was closed in October. But the city bumped its support to $389,000, enough to keep the remaining two branches open until February. The Camden County library system agreed to take over what remained.
But the main branch would have to shut down.
Officials hope to take over a portion of the library at the nearby Rutgers University campus for general public use, but the details haven't been finalized. Rutgers spokesman Michael Sepanic says there's no firm timeline, either.
Jerome Szpila took the job as director of the Camden library less than a year ago, with plans to upgrade a system that has suffered from years of underfunding.
Librarians say they haven't been able to buy a new book in more than a year.
The check-out system still uses paper cards of the type that were retired in most big public libraries by the 1970s. There's no computerized inventory of the collection and the old card catalog system hasn't been updated for years.
"We don't know what we have," he said. But as he arrived, he realized the challenge was more elemental: He would just try to keep the libraries running.
"It's a sad day to say the city cannot afford its own library," he said.
Szpila was one of the 19 employees at the library as it closed. Along with eight others, he's been hired to staff the new Camden branch of the county library.
The others are preparing for unemployment.
Jewell Johnson, a lifelong Camden resident, who has worked at the library for two decades, is thinking about becoming a counselor. She feels like she's already experienced.
"That's what I do with the young people when they come through," said Johnson, who worked at the circulation desk.
Marvin Miller, who's also worked at the library for 20 years, says he'll take it easy. He's not sure where he'll go to play chess, a game he's picked up from patrons over the years.
Jon Parker, a reference librarian for more than eight years, spent Thursday talking baseball with some regulars and telling others about the closing as he oversaw the sign-ins at 14 computers. At about 3 p.m. he announced that patrons could take home the games in the children's department.
Keisha Allen was distraught to learn that Thursday would be her last day at the branch. She comes here often with a spiral-bound notebook in which she's writing a book about life in Camden. The petitions she signed months ago didn't work, she was sorry to learn.
Her 16-year-old son spends hours daily surfing the Web in the bank of computers that take up one corner of the building. Allen's friend, Curtis Banks, says taking the library away from the teen could be disastrous.
"Once this facility closes, he is automatically an at-risk kid," Banks said.
Allen just shook her head, as her hometown gave her and her son yet another worry. "I've got to get him a computer," she said.
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