Letter to the Editor

Editor:

Months of citizen efforts to obtain improved interim library service - for six branches closed for renovations that have only bookmobile service 5 - 8 hours per week - are beginning to bear fruit.

And now, before the SF Board of Supervisors finally approve the city budget in mid to late July, is a pivotal time for San Franciscans to make more calls and send letters to the mayor, the supervisors and, especially, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, saying we don't want bookmobiles for just two half-days per week at each branch, but real library service, full-time, in an empty store or other facility, like a SF Recreation and Park Department facility.

Mirkarimi challenged the library to improve interim service at a Budget and Finance Committee meeting June 16. City Librarian Luis Herrera had just accepted the budget analyst's recommendation to cut $401,000 from the library's budget. Mirkarimi offered to restore the funding if the library would improve interim services, but Herrera's response was: "It certainly would not be easy." But on June 23, Herrera came back with an offer to increase service at a cost of $109,000. No details were provided at the time.

However, the Library Users Association has learned that the library's improvement would only affect the Park Branch, according to a June 22 e-mail to Mirkarimi's office obtained through a public records request. The library's proposal would add two days of bookmobile service, Thursdays, from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

What's surprising is that the library plans to provide increased service only for the Park Branch

- which is in Mirkarimi's district

- and nothing for the other five branches that have only limited bookmobile service: Anza, Parkside, Presidio, Merced and Golden Gate Valley.

Peter Warfield

Executive Director

Library Users Association