Camden Loses Soul for Good: Closes Main Library

Camden loses its soul for good -- closes main library
Trentonian: February 10, 2011

CAMDEN (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.

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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. READ MORE !