By Ruthanne Tarantino
News Staff
The state has given $350,000 has to keep four branches of the Boston Public Library open for an additional three months. This news comes after Mayor Thomas M. Menino proposed to close the branches as a “cost-saving plan” in a recent interview.
“Budget crunches always pose a difficult situation … certainly we feel for Boston for having to close some branches,” said Maria Carpenter, director of advancement, marketing, and communications for Northeastern’s libraries.
“I feel like a library is an anchor for a community, “so I’d be angry if [our library] was shutting down,” said Brendan Gerrity, a sophomore international business major.
The library closings came as a surprise to some students. “I was unaware that libraries were closing,” said Denise D’Auria, a sophomore studying behaviorial neuroscience. “Especially in a big place, like a city like Boston, it’s important to have a lot of branches of libraries as a resource center used all the time.”
When told that Menino said Boston has too many libraries, she disagreed with Menino that Boston has too many libraries.
“I’m from a suburb where we do have a ton of branches of libraries,” D’Auria said. “I’m not sure if we need all of them. Definitely not a place like here where so many people are scholars and students. There are never too many.”
In addition to thinking about Boston libraries as a resource for collegiate scholars, some Northeastern students expressed concern that the plan may be taking away a community resource for families.
“I remember when I was little I would go to the library twice a week and got many books to bring home,” said Laura Pagani, a freshman civil engineering major. “If you had a family, it would be hard to take them on a subway to go to a library across town. I would probably be really angry if they were taking away the library that was closest to me.”
Gerrity agrees that libraries need stay open in order to better serve communities.
“I think it’s important that they keep up with providing adequate resources for the community so much as computer work stations, because there is so much information online now … I don’t think [libraries] are out of fashion, they need to be able to keep up with how we’re starting to access information,” Gerrity said.
Northeastern’s libraries have up-to-date resources for students to use, so they do not have to seek outside resources.
“One thing we’re really proud of is we provide access to many electronic journals and e-books. That’s so students can access content right away,” Carpenter said. “We also have really great resource sharing. We’re members of a consortium so we’re able to get resources for people form other libraries. So if we don’t own a material we can get a resource within a couple of days.”
Although students may not always use all the resources provided by Northeastern’s library, they appreciate the fact that the information is there for them to use.
“I don’t think libraries will ever be out of fashion,” D’Auria said. “I think there will always be people who need libraries. Especially books. I always prefer books over electronic books … Libraries always have so many resources. I grew up going to libraries, so I have a spent a lot of time in libraries. It’s definitely a learning area, so even if you’re not in school, you’re always using libraries for some kind of resource, reference, or just general knowledge.”
“I think libraries promote community because it’s a place everyone can go to … when you have a library it’s a place to meet people, and run into the librarian and to establish a sense of belonging,” Pagani said.
