The community and local politicians last week rallied around the Holmesburg branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia in opposition of the city's proposed cuts in hours and librarians.
      Holmesburg is one of 10 express libraries already in Philadelphia with no accredited librarians and four-hour days. Another 10 will become express service in the coming weeks.
      Last week, former library employees, neighbors and local kids protested on the steps of the library, at the corner of Frankford Avenue and Hartel Street, and signed petitions to rollback the budget cuts.       
      "This is, what I believe, the willful dismantling of the library system," said Amy Dougherty, director of the Friends of the Free Library of Philadelphia. "And I believe the administration has plans to reduce library services now and in the future."
According to Dougherty, there has been a hiring freeze since 2002. In January, 13 library employees were laid off. By June, 26 more positions will be reduced. Librarians are being replaced by library clerks without degrees in library science.
      "(Library clerks) cannot do the research that you need," Dougherty said, "cannot help you with your computers, cannot find the books you need, cannot do everything you are accustomed to a fully accredited librarian doing."
      Dougherty calls express service the "wave of the future" for libraries in Philadelphia and she finds that "completely unacceptable."
      "We need libraries because they are the bedrock of our education, of our economic development, of our arts and culture," she said.
      Regina Madden, a former Holmesburg librarian, encouraged the community to keep fighting for services and hours. Although closing the library has not been discussed, she said it would be a "neighborhood nightmare" if it ever happened.
      Local politicians, State Sen. Michael Stack (D-5) and State Rep. Michael McGeehan (D-173), joined the protest calling grassroots politics the way to get things done in Pennsylvania.
"What does is say about our state and our city if we put funding libraries way down on our priorities list?" Stack asked. "Sometimes there is just no place where a kid can get the kind of focus and study and the resources and the learning ability that can happen in the libraries."
      McGeehan calls libraries the "centers of our community." He thinks this is a continuation of the theme of cutting services in Northeast Philadelphia, which he says started with the closing of the mini City Hall.
      "They are cutting off the public from what the public pays for," he said. "Something is fundamentally wrong with the system."
      Holmesburg Library, according to McGeehan, no longer has the personnel to educate the neighborhood's children.
      "Every student needs a library to succeed," said Karen Lash, president of the Forrest Elementary Home and School Association. "There's no such thing as a good education without a good library, open all day and staffed with professional librarians."
      Philadelphia school children are being "short changed," Lash says, without librarians in their schools and, now, without librarians in the public libraries.
      "Librarians are full time necessities," she said, "not part time luxuries."
      Lash then gave the neighborhood kids homework to write letters, call and email City Council and Mayor Street and tell them "I want my library."
      "Without Librarians people will have a lot of trouble at the library," said Ryan Lash, a third grader at Forrest Elementary. "Librarians are amazing people. Why should we get rid of them?"
Another rally is schedule for Thursday, March 17 at 2 p.m. in City Hall.
      "This is a fight we can win," Stack said. "This is a fight we have to win."