Arthur Pike, member of the Provincetown Board of
Library Trustees, testified on
H.1199 authorizes bond funding to restore core services of the Libraries of the Commonwealth, services that have been cut drastically in the current fiscal crisis. The Provincetown Library has had to curtail some of its important local services, because support is no longer provided by the State.
The text of Pike's testimony follows, including a few bracketed extemporaneous remarks:
My name is Arthur Pike.
I am an elected Trustee of the Provincetown Public Library. In our resort Town of 3500 year-round
population, [ with an electronic counter at the door] our Library recorded
95,000 visits in 2002. [And all of those
visits are in a building with just under 5000 square feet! - (big
gasp from Legislators)]. Of course, our
population swells to about 40,000 in the Summer season. We also provide an annual circulation of over
52,000 materials, curiously about the same numbers per month whether Summer or
Winter. [We're not quite sure why this
happens, but we think that our senior citizens never go down town while the
tourists are here! - (great guffaw throughout the Hearing Room)]. And, we're open 48 hours per week year round.
In the past ten years, the availability of Internet
databases and searches, coupled with the courier and other services provided by
our Regional Library System, Provincetown has been able to offer Library
services that would not be possible in a small Town, if our only resources were
the excellent collection we do possess.
[And we know that we have an excellent collection because we have been a
net lender - other libraries borrow more from us than we borrow from
outside. - (Vice-Chairperson Fargo nodded yes to that
statement)] Recent cutbacks in State
funding have brought severe restrictions on the quality of our services.
The restoration proposed in H.1199 is sorely needed by
Provincetown. We feel most keenly the
loss of licensed databases and the curtailment of Regional delivery
services. I urge that you support the
passage of H.1199 to restore the infrastructure of Library Services for the
Commonwealth. Thank you.
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