Miami-Dade has a big todo on Sunday when it opens its newest library branch in Bay Harbor Islands.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez is expected to be there. So is Commissioner Sally Heyman, Bay Harbor Islands Mayor Jordan Leonard and several, if not all the council members.
The 50th branch in the county, this library features a “diverse collection” of reading and viewing/listening materials, free Wi-Fi, high-speed desktop and tablet computers and 21st century learning tools such as a SMART Table interactive learning center and gaming area for children and teens.
Yay!
Just don’t try to go back to the brand new library branch on Monday. ‘Cause it’ll be closed.
This newest of libraries is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It joins a bunch of other branches
that are still closed at least one weekday, leftover austerity from the scaled-back 2013 budget cuts that at one point threatened to close almost half the branches countyide and layoff 260 from the staff.
No libraries closed, but cuts were still made.
And, today, the Coral Gables library is still closed on Thursdays. The next closest one, in South Miami, is also closed on Thursdays. So are the North Shore and Palm Springs North branches. The Palmetto Bay library branch and the Virrick Park library branch is closed on Tuesdays. The Fairlawn, West Flagler and North Central branches are closed on Wednesdays. The Coconut Grove, Concord, Overtown, Edison, Hialeah Gardens, Miami Springs, Opa-Locka, Lemon City, Lakes of the Meadow, Tamiami, South Shore, Sunset, Aventura and Allapattah branches are all closed on Fridays.
Maybe we should consider ourselves lucky that none of them closed their doors every day forever.
Remember when Mayor Gimenez said that the age of the library was dead? That these institutions were a thing of the past?
Apparently, he got the memo that we didn’t 
like that.
“This library will be a great resource for the Town of Bay Harbor Islands community,” Gimenez said in an about-face statement. “I applaud our Board of County Commissioners as well as the vision of Mayor Jordan Leonard and the Bay Harbor Islands Town Council in recognizing the benefit and importance of library services for their residents.”
So, if they are so important, why can’t they be open every weekday? Are we even working toward that in the future? Or are we going to just accept that the age of libraries being open on any given weekday is dead?
And what’s going to happen with the third floor of the Main Library building, which is sitting empty, except for the area that holds the main frame computer and county IT staff who oversee library computer services. The library vacated the third floor in 2013 to reduce the rent paid to the county’s own General Services Administration, which was $2.4 million — or about $1,209.67 an operating hour (does that constitute price gouging?) — and ostensibly was for “maintenance.”
The space could not be used for courthouse operations or storage, as was once considered, because of security concerns.
Meanwhile, there may have been a really high cost to moving everything down to the basement, where maintenance was located. That meant maintenance had to move to West Dade Regional, which has a cost, too. And room had to be made on the second floor for displaced personnel. Ladra was told the whole process was traumatic — and expensive.
So there is money in the library budget. It just goes to nonsensical moves rather than keeping branches open five days a week.
New county library opens — but not on Mondays added by Ladra on
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