For Immediate Release — Deanwood, Washington, DC

Addressing the Board of Library Trustees meeting at the new Deanwood Library last night, Councilmember Tommy Wells (Ward 6) said he strongly supported keeping the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library open on Sundays, “and will do everything in my power to get the $320,000 needed.”

The MLK Library is scheduled to be closed on Sundays in FY2012, which begins October 1, 2011. Wells was recently appointed chairman of the Library, Parks, Recreation and Planning Committee, after budget hearings were concluded.

“How encouraging that the new chair of the Library Committee is standing up so forcefully for the Library,” commented Wendy Blair, of Ward 6, President of the Literary Friends of the DC Public Library.

Marcia Carter, of the Friends of the Georgetown Library said “closing MLK on Sundays would be tragic — not only for its effect on the general public — but because of the many special needs students who rely on services available only at MLK.”

Susan Haight, President of the Federation of Friends of the DC Public Library and also of the West End Library branch summed up, “We look forward to working with Councilman Wells, Mayor Gray, the CFO, Library Trustees and Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper to make this happen by Oct 1, and reversing the current direction.”