Webinar Lecture feat. Linda Kushner, Author, The Fight That Saved the Libraries: A True Rhode Island Story

The Fight that Saved Providence’s Neighborhood Libraries from Extinction

Here is the inside story of how a small, determined group of people, drawing on their diverse skills, managed to stop the Providence Public Library, a 138-year-old institution, from closing its branches libraries in 2009 by creating a separate new library system, the Community Libraries of Providence (CLPVD) which now runs all nine neighborhood libraries for the city of Providence. The five-year fight to get the city contract was truly a David and Goliath story. David won again!

Linda Kushner is a retired attorney who represented the East Side as a state legislator for twelve years, from 1982 to 1994. In 2004, she joined with a small group of reformers, and using her legal and political skills, launched a five-year battle to reform the library.