Good evening, everyone:

The third installment in our exploration of the Detroit Public Library system is its necklace of neighborhood/branch libraries.

Detroit has had as many as 23 branches over its history – with ebbs and flows for closures, renovations, or budget cycles. It also has a bookmobile service that seeks to extend service into neighborhoods without a nearby branch.

The branches, like the Central library, are supported largely (approximately 85% - or $40 million annually) from a dedicated property tax millage (not the City’s general fund) that is renewed by public vote every ten years (the last was in August of 2024 and extends through 2035).

The system was designed to ensure that most residents could reach a branch within a fifteen-minute walk. The map below – a little difficult to decipher – suggests that intent, but notes how it has been compromised by closures:

These extraordinary institutions are backbone community infrastructure:

• They lend books, magazines (paper and electronic), music, and a wide variety of other objects to anyone with a library card . . .

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• They furnish study spaces for young people and adults alike . . .

• They provide after-school programming, creating a structured, safe, and free destination for young people . . .

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• They offer a dizzying array of educational programming . . .

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• They make available computers, WiFi, and digital platforms (first offered at the Chandler Branch in 1989) – including laptops and hotspots to borrow . . .

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• They are hubs for family support services, whether job services, tax and estate planning assistance, legal and financial counseling, food distribution, or otherwise.

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I shouldn’t be surprised – but was – to understand just how central they are to the city’s public health system.

• The Chase branch in Northwest, for example, serves as a warming center in winter and a cooling center in summer . . .

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• Computer access at every branch enables telehealth appointments for those who might not otherwise overcome the digital divide . . .  

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• They became essential components of the city’s response to COVID.

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And they are anything but cookie-cutter images of one another:

• The Campbell branch in Mexicantown stocks bilingual books and hosts bilingual programming . . .

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• The Douglass Branch for Specialized Services houses the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and is the central node for bookmobile service.

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Extraordinary resources for all reaches of the city.

Rip

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