With two branch libraries, East Boston is a likely contender to lose at least one of them in the round of closings that are expected as part of a streamlining of the Boston Public Library.
If one of two is lost in this neighborhood, it is not the end of the world, although many users will be forced to go much further in order to access the remaining public library.
Bottom line, the Boston Public Library is gearing up for the future by coming to grips with unsustainable expenses.
The library’s budget must be cut and balanced.
The future of technology is colliding with the imperatives of maintaining the library’s relevance to young and old alike.
Libraries and their branches are no longer simply repositories for books.
They are multi-faceted information centers and they are linked with the vast world of information outside their walls by the Internet and computers.
As time passes, libraries will increasingly be forced to change their reason to exist.
This is exactly what is happening to the Boston Public Library right now.
In a perfect world, other branches except one of our own will be closed.
But it isn’t a perfect world.
It is likely we will lose a branch but in the exchange, we will all be gaining a hipper, more modern and efficient Boston Public Library.