CITYWATCH Protest continues to target the Providence library BY BRIAN C. JONES

When the Providence Public Library held its annual meeting October 14, critics who had protested last summer’s reductions in staffing and operating hours at the downtown Central Library were pleased to find they were welcome. Opening meetings of the private, nonprofit library, which receives much of its money from the city and state, has been a goal for critics. They had pressed unsuccessfully for a general public forum before the July cutbacks. "Certainly, it is a step forward," says Rick Robbins, a founder of the group FOPPL (For Our Precious Public Library), who attended. "Our group and others have been very eager to have more transparency and accountability."

But a library spokeswoman, Tonia Mason, says opening the annual session did not represent a change: "In fact, meetings have never been closed to the public — anybody was welcome." Mason says in years when there was less controversy, meetings hadn’t attracted attention beyond trustees and other invited guests. This year, there was more awareness, so more people showed up. One difference this year is that officials scheduled a comment period, so trustees could hear public concerns. More frequent meetings of trustees remain closed to the public.

That the library and its critics still seem to be talking past each other indicates the unresolved nature of the pitched controversy, marked by street protest and a letter-writing campaign, that flared earlier this year (see "Whose library is it, anyway?" News, August 6). And while the rallies have died down, the protest effort hasn’t.

Robbins says his group remains eager to participate in library affairs, even though it’s independent of the library, which this summer rebuffed, for the time being, its bid to become a formal "friends of the library" group. Also, a "library reform group" has sprung up, and includes members of existing "friends" groups at other library branches, according to Patricia Raub, a Providence College professor who helped organize the earlier rallies. The group wants city and state membership on the library board, plus a new state law requiring private organizations to have open meetings if they have substantial public funding, as is the case with the library, Raub says.

Mason, the library spokeswoman, says the library "is willing to explore" proposals for public membership on the board and opening board meetings to the public.

Another protest group, Providence Public Library Defense, still maintains a Web site (www.provlibdefense.org), which includes a late September statement saying that even though public protests have "slacked off," it is still working on new "strategies."

But the elimination of 21 of 200 jobs has not been rescinded, and the Central Library still operates at 48 hours, rather than 61 hours, a week. It is, however, now open Thursday night, as well as Monday night, a move advocated by the state office of library services, which supplies some funding.

Also, the United Service & Allied Workers of Rhode Island has withdrawn an unfair labor practices charge filed to counter the layoff of five janitors whose jobs have been outsourced to private contractors. Union business agent Karen McAninch says National Labor Relations Board investigators appeared to be looking at the outsourcing as an allowable action, although the union believes it was prompted by anti-union "animus."

McAninch says the union still represents four maintenance workers and is exploring whether library staffers in other departments want to join. McAninch says the union has asked the library to adopt a "neutrality" stance in which it would recognize the union if more than half of a workers’ group signed up. She says the library hasn’t yet responded.