At a press conference this afternoon, Mayor Nutter said that the city wants to preserve all the essential functions of the 11 branch libraries slated for closure by privatizing them.

The city hopes to transfer management of 11 library branches scheduled to be closed in less than three days to private foundations, wealthy individuals, companies and community development corporations, Mayor Nutter said in a press conference today.

The specific services offered at each former library would vary from site to site depending on the sponsor, and Nutter said the city only has tentative agreements in place for five of the 11 branches.

It was not immediately clear which of the 11 branches are on track to be saved, and the mayor did not identify the organizations, companies and individuals who have stepped up to support.

But his hope is that, in time, each of the 11 libraries will be converted into community “knowledge centers” that offer similar or perhaps even superior services to those now available at the branches: retaining book collections, computers, and perhaps even trained (though not city employed) librarians.

Because privatizing essential government services has worked so well when we tried it in running the Iraq war, or closer to home, the school district.

And because in this economic climate CDCs, foundations, and wealthy individuals are swimming in so much more money than is the city (those high-rolling CDCs!). So we are going to hand off running these facilities to a collection of totally decentralized and unaccountable people, with no particular expertise in running libraries? We are so totally down the rabbit hole.

Elsewhere in wonderland this morning, testimony began in support of the suit to halt branch library closures. There was a packed room, and Judge Idee Fox gamely served as ringmaster.

Hearing the plaintiffs speak and be cross-examined underlined the surreality of this whole thing. I'm not just talking about when a woman stated that she is a poet and goes to the library to read poetry and take notes and write, and the city's lawyer opened cross-examination by demanding, "you said you are a poet, are you published anywhere?" Or when another woman had to carefully explain to the city's lawyer how her spinal condition meant that her ten-year-old son has to carry all the books they both check out, and since a more-distant library means fewer trips, that means fewer books they can read each week. Those were sadly comic moments.

But the city kept asking if people could use the internet 'in the same way' at the next-closest branch, or if they could meet their neighbors 'in a rec center' or 'walking along the street'. And the plaintiffs all calmly explained why that's just not the same thing. I felt bad for the city's attorneys, because this cannot be a fun position to defend.

Judge Fox seemed to get this, and apparently the mayor agrees. This afternoon at his press conference announcing the grand new privatization plan, Mayor Nutter said:

“Libraries are much more than repositories for books. We know this. They are the absolute complete nexus of community life.”

Tomorrow lawyers for the Council Representatives who have also filed suit to halt the closings will put on testimony, and the City will respond. Hearings begin at 9:30 am in courtroom 426, in City Hall.