Tuesday, August 13, 2013

The basement of the main library. By Geniusofdespair

The Mayor wants to empty the basement of the main library. I have been down there in the basement of the main library, it houses the Florida Moving Image Archive.  The Miami Dade Library use to boast holding the largest regional film collection the country. This collection was started by Arva Moore Parks, Gregory Bush and other in the mid 80's.

I looked up old footage of Athalie Range in her prime making speeches. It must have been in the late 50's or early 60's when she was a mother/activist trying to get her kids into a good school.  There were thousands of films there. It was fascinating down in the main library basement. Where will all these films go?

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have some other questions:
So who's moving in Sept 1 that there is this emergency purge of materials and boxing up of collections?

Why does the County library pay rent to the County? And since they are their own landlord, couldn't they be more forgiving and not kick them out?

Why can't Gimenez wait until after September budget hearings to make changes - maybe the Commission will find other funds or Jeff Bezos of Amazon will write a check to cover their rent money. Or Gloria Estefan?

Where is everything and everyone going? Or does "clear your desk" to library workers mean clear out of here forever and don't let the door hit you on the backside on the way out.

This is a disreputable and undignified end to a department that has served us well - Look! No federal investigations!


Here's hoping a library angel steps in to help. Or maybe a judge with an injunction.

Anonymous said...

The basement is also where books that come in from the branches are stored and sorted by volunteers for the annual Friends of the Library book sale in early December. If the basement can't be used, I wonder what will happen to the book sale, which is the largest book sale event in the county outside the Miami Book Fair.

Anonymous said...

Gimenez and his merry band have gone absolutely crazy and trying to rewrite and destroy history in Miami. He needs to get back and fix the roads, water systems bridges and infrastructure of the county.
Those of us who voted against a strong mayor form of government is what is happening now a mayor that is working against us as citizens.

Anonymous said...

Has everything been stored in DVDs or old documents digitized?

Anonymous said...

I calculated the incremental cost to taxpayers of the keeping the libraries open with flat funding (the mayor's original millage proposal). We would pay an extra $7.19 per $1000 of property taxes. Is that a fair cost to keep the libraries open?

Rene Ramos said...

A correction. The Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives are now located at the Wolfson Campus of Miami Dade College. That notwithstanding, there are still some outstanding collections of film and art still at the Main Branch, and it would be a tragedy for the citizens of Miami Dade County to lose them.

Anonymous said...

What the Mayor should have said to his staff is there will be no new taxes, and the libraries will not close. Now find me some alternative solutions. And the ones who came back with no workable solutions are useless and should be fired.

Anonymous said...

Since everybody is crying about the libraries, the animal control facilities, reduction in fire department, I have a idea let's raise property taxes each and every year to keep our county government running and be in a financial position where everything and every service is operating at 100% funding. If you don't want to pay more taxes who and what programs gets cut. Will it be Jackson hospital, maybe the jail or some other vital service, its your choice either pay higher taxes or lets start cutting..

Anonymous said...

OK. Let's start cutting. Starting with the Mayor's office first. . .

Anonymous said...

What the Mayor should have said is OK, I lend half of my well-paid Deputy Mayors as volunteers in the libraries. And I'll donate half my office budget to the libraries to help keep them running. And I'll lead a fundraising campaign with all the lobbyists and developers who normally donate to my campaigns to instead donate to the Friends of the Miami-Dade Library. and I'll take that $6.5 million check the County pays the Miami Heat every year and instead write it out to the library fund. And I'll ask the Dolphins and the Marlines to write $1 million checks, too. And Gloria Estefan can have a charity concert at the Triple A and bring in some money too. And the $5 million in rent the County library pays the County every year - forget about it. That was an accounting trick. LOL. All this because I care. And I think libraries are important. And I will do everything to keep them fully funded.

But no, instead he said, "It is what it is. Clear your desk Marion. Pack your bags. The age of the library is OVER."

Anonymous said...

Carlos Gimenez has too many dumb staffers. Worse, he pays too many $100,000 to $300,000 each per year.
Reduce headcount, Carlos.

Anonymous said...

Here is an idea. All workers who interact face to face with the public would be exempt from this since these are very busy and productive people. This is for everyone else. Every employee who cannot show exactly what they did in 40 hours of work last week, should be reduced to a six hour work day. It won't impact productivity at all since they have nothing to show for a week's worth of work anyway. Put that in the computer and that's millions of dollars available.

Anonymous said...

Are the librarians still the highest paid librarians in the nation? Perhaps we should start cutting those high salaries instead of services.

Pat said...

Did Gimenez say he wants the library to destroy the film archives? I never heard him say that. Could you please cite your source?

Anonymous said...

Here's the email I saw that exposed the potential disaster to the repository. I think the Jumpstart info isn't accurate, it's allowed to exist as a reduced service at a northern branch

Page 1

In the coming weeks, the Main Library of the Miami-Dade Public Library System has to vacate the 3rd floor administrative offices and the basement area (of its own building) in order to save money. A $5.1 million lease, out of a $28 million total budget, was being charged. This large amount had finally come to the public's attention. The county was charging a special taxing district Library Department an exorbitant lease. This allowed a legal transfer of money into the county's general fund. The two museums in the same Cultural Center have paid no rent, as any charges were offset by a general fund grant. When this was unveiled in the media, it embarrassed the Mayor. The retaliation was harsh.

The library administration gave an unprecedented directive. To get a discount on the lease, staff are now ordered to take the 200,000 square feet of space on four floors and reduce it down to 100,000 square feet. To do this the basement and third floors are being vacated. Apparently, the county is able to find an immediate tenant for the space. The deadline was set as August 30, 2013, about three weeks to undo years of preserved collections.

There’s a significant amount of archival materials in the basement. Where will it go if there’s no space to house it? What will be done with it? The building is shrinking to save money and time is running out. With nearly everything being thrown away, rare and endangered material get lost in the shuffle — and through the grapevine (which is pretty reliable with librarians) a book that is from centuries past may be tossed into the garbage. This is a reprehensible act against our community, culture, and history.

Anonymous said...

Here's the email I saw that exposed the potential disaster to the repository. I think the Jumpstart info isn't accurate, it's allowed to exist as a reduced service at a northern branch

Page 1

In the coming weeks, the Main Library of the Miami-Dade Public Library System has to vacate the 3rd floor administrative offices and the basement area (of its own building) in order to save money. A $5.1 million lease, out of a $28 million total budget, was being charged. This large amount had finally come to the public's attention. The county was charging a special taxing district Library Department an exorbitant lease. This allowed a legal transfer of money into the county's general fund. The two museums in the same Cultural Center have paid no rent, as any charges were offset by a general fund grant. When this was unveiled in the media, it embarrassed the Mayor. The retaliation was harsh.

The library administration gave an unprecedented directive. To get a discount on the lease, staff are now ordered to take the 200,000 square feet of space on four floors and reduce it down to 100,000 square feet. To do this the basement and third floors are being vacated. Apparently, the county is able to find an immediate tenant for the space. The deadline was set as August 30, 2013, about three weeks to undo years of preserved collections.

There’s a significant amount of archival materials in the basement. Where will it go if there’s no space to house it? What will be done with it? The building is shrinking to save money and time is running out. With nearly everything being thrown away, rare and endangered material get lost in the shuffle — and through the grapevine (which is pretty reliable with librarians) a book that is from centuries past may be tossed into the garbage. This is a reprehensible act against our community, culture, and history.

Anonymous said...

Page 2

Along with the disdain for librarians, the Mayor discards collections and entire libraries across the county without any consideration for the past or the future. Forcing librarians to destroy the libraries they've been educated to preserve and protect is vile. It took almost 100 years of developing these collections that were started under the City of Miami Libraries, assisted by civic organizations, and we in 2013, give them away or destroy them.

What about five years from now when a new county administration decides libraries are valuable? These collections and rare materials are gone? They will no longer be a part of THIS library's special collections. It's like having a new library with no history or soul. Not to mention that many of the materials might not stay in Miami for the residents of this community.

There has been a thoughtless and costly betrayal to our community by one Mayor and the eight Commissioners who refused to reinstate the appropriate 2010-11 budget for the 49 branch library system after the reserves were forced to be depleted. Their vote was over in fifteen minutes. The amount of damage will resonate for a century. The mayor calls this "sustainability."

Despite the popular belief that “everything is on the Internet,” it really isn’t. The book was in existence thousands of years before the Internet was even conceived, and it will take a long while before we can truly say that everything is online. Libraries have been at the forefront in the effort to digitize collections. Despite the evolution of technology, it has been the libraries mission to maintain a balance between preserving existing archival collections, while embracing new technologies. In Miami-Dade County, the Main Library is an archival repository for our local community.

Despite arguments to the contrary, the Main Library is a research library with many special collections which have taken decades to build and preserve. Whenever the County needs facts, figures from current and past years, guess who they turn to for help? Does anyone realize where all those facts and figures are coming from? With the Mayor’s flat tax initiative and the shortsighted mentality that the “age of the library has passed,” is being dismantled piece by piece along with its archival collections.

Anonymous said...

Page 3

Today there were rolling garbage bins on the 2nd floor in front of Social Sciences desk overflowing with black plastic garbage bags containing books being hidden from view before they are thrown away...

WE NEED TO SAVE THE LIBRARY NOW!

Call the Mayor, the Commissioners, concerned citizens, librarians and archivists everywhere. We need informed citizens to speak out and defend the past investments and endangered future of Miami-Dade's public libraries before it’s too late.

Desperate ideas to preserve collections:
Finding foster sites, like how museums or the Vatican sends out their art treasures. Could our art collection be temporarily loaned for a special exhibition in galleries around town? If something should happen to them, at least they wouldn't be stuffed in a closet for years or thrown out because there is no space. Special collections could travel the country like the dinosaur bones.

Contact the state of Florida Library to perhaps take over some of the valuable things so they wouldn't be lost to everyone? Or the Library of Congress?

We ship our excess dogs and cats out of state to be adopted maybe someone could adopt or foster our collections! We could put out an S.O.S.

The under construction Northeast Branch in Aventura is not yet completed and we cannot take possession or store anything in the building without a certificate of completion. Furthermore most of these items are valuable and need security plus a correct environment not to deteriorate. The kicker is we are expecting three to four pallets of new materials for the Aventura Library with no place to store or process them.

In the basement in serials: (The information in the catalog is not accurate.)
Illustrated London News in folio-size bound volumes. Shelves of them from the 1880s on. We've used them in exhibits highlighting the building and opening of the Statue of Liberty, the Spanish-American War, etc.

Anonymous said...

Page 4

Famous authors whose works first appeared in magazines which we have:
Ernest Hemingway The Old Man and the Sea first appeared in Life magazine (of course we have it). Zora Neale Hurston's numerous short stories first appeared in Saturday Review of Literature, Saturday Evening Post etc. which we have. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings short stories first appeared in Saturday Evening Post. St. Nicholas Magazine (for children), Harpers Weekly and Monthly, Scribners (Harriet Beecher Stowe and Zane Grey contributed Florida material to these). Early runs of Architectural Review, Architectural Digest, Scientific American, and a lot of materials starting before Cocoanut Grove was even settled.

Statesman's Yearbook (an almanac that lists govt officials and geographis, political information; we have every year from the 1870s to the 1980s). Think of all the countries that have come and gone, all the wars, etc.
Many of these start in the 1870s and 1880s and obviously were not purchased with Miami-Dade County funds, but with City of Miami funds and Miami Women's Club funds and Coconut Grove Women's Club funds, etc. The list could go on and on and on, but It makes us feel sick.

These is a large collection of vinyl phonograph discs which a subject specialist librarian says will probably be trashed soon. The UM Music School Library would probably love to have a lot of them. Many were given to us by an elderly man on Miami Beach who was trying to put them in a public repository where they would be protected.

The location for the Cuban Collection is up in air.

Art Services might be using the AV Closet to house some of the art collection or it might be used to house the Programming supplies. The art collection might still go to South Dade Regional Library, but the concern is the poor conditions for preserving the collection because the A/C is not adequate.

Anonymous said...

Page 5

Discussions are under way as to what to do with Government Docs. The possibility of MDPLS no longer being a government depository is being considered. Florida International University has a digitizing project and they are a government depository so we may send things to them in the hopes that we'll eventually get access once these are digitized.

What to do with the Periodicals collections, the Music Scores, the Florida Documents in the Basement and Branch Pool remains a problem. Branch pool contains a lot of items, including Business Reference sources, that are rare or hard to find and that the public still uses. Staff still go into these close stacks 10-20 times per week to look for things for patrons. Some possibilities being considered - to move some of the Periodicals to the Periodicals area on the first floor. The public computers are being removed from that area and Main has stopped checking out laptops to patrons.

Wherever these collections go, they will likely need to be heavily weeded to make room but we don't have the staff/time to weed appropriately.

Half of the auditorium at Main is going to be closed off and used either for storage or for collections. The Music Scores may go in there or the art collection.

Another possibility being considered is to close off the area where UA/Lead is since that has glass doors that can be closed. Some of these closed stack items could go there or it could be used for offices.

The UA collection will probably just be inter-filed with the rest of the collection. Same thing for the professional collection.

All VHS items at Main are to be eliminated.

The Basement's movable shelving which was $500,000-$700,000 will be now be one of the cost losses. There is no place or money to move them.

It is extremely hard and depressing to be at the Main Library to see all of these rich collections just being devastated or simply being given away.

Perhaps a sale, since our mayor demands that the library be sustainable? "Buy RARE and ENDANGERED items from over 500 years ago!" Thank you Mayor Gimenez for putting this out on the market!

Anonymous said...


WHAT ABOUT THE FREEDOM TOWER, THE OLD MIAMI DAILY NEWS PAPER LOCATION---THAT'S A HISTORICAL
LOCATION FOR OUR COLLECTIONS

Geniusofdespair said...

Why should we be looking for a new location when we have a perfectly good location right now?

Anonymous said...

We have irresponsible leadership here who want to extort money from taxpayers who have nothing left to give. The librarians are going to have to lead this effort to save what we can. You need a war room. Call a member of Congress and have them to get someone from the Library of Congress to come down and see what they will take. University librarians in the area and around the state should be called to see what they would take. There maybe historical foundations that may take somethings. Under no circumstances should anything be discarded.

Anonymous said...

Let me guess? Carlos Gimenez wants to give 100,000+ sq ft of the Main Library to a Charter School? And guess what? The Charter School will be owned by a friend and/or campaign contributor to Carlos Gimenez?
And the Charter School will pay no rent? Or a greatly reduced rent?

Anonymous said...

What does the library director have to say? Can he say No to Gimenez and these directives? Can all the staff just stand down? We need a court order.

Anonymous said...

Check out the county store many books and phonograph records for sale as well as brand new car, bus, truck parts, copy machines, reems of paper, plus much much more for pennies on the dollar-parts and supplies that should have been bought with a repurchase agreement on unused items of at least 80% of original value from the vendor. Waste not want not.