Access a concern after library hours cut

In recent weeks, cutbacks in staffing levels and hours by Peabody Essex Museum's Phillips Library have caused users to question how much access they'll continue to have inside the storied Salem institution.

Last month, the library laid off five employees and, citing a 60 percent decrease in walk-in usage since the mid 1990s, cut hours from 4 to 1.5 days a week. This month, the museum said it will consolidate several departments that will be based at the library, and will move to put part of its 400,000 volumes and 2 million manuscript papers on the Internet.

The library also announced late last week that it would increase admission fees to visitors from $10 to $15 on Thursdays, while continuing to allow Salem residents, Peabody Essex Museum members, and qualified researchers to view the collection for free.

The library, with its gold-leaf pillars, and busts of Nathaniel Bowditch and George Peabody, is best known for holding the original 1692 Salem witchcraft trials papers, and early works by Nathaniel Hawthorne. According to museum officials, the library will continue to offer access to qualified researchers four days a week.

The researchers must be approved by John Grimes, the museum's deputy director of research, new media, and information. Dan Monroe, the museum's executive director, authorized the changes. He explained his reasoning in an e-mail.

"In making recent changes, the museum is affirming the things that have always been at the library's core: serving scholars, serving the community, and serving the public beyond our walls," he wrote.

Emerson W. Baker, chairman of the history department at Salem State College thinks the new hours reflect a class system, where qualified researchers are rewarded with library access, and budding historians all but shut out.

"I think people who will really be hurt the most are the walk-in visitors in town; the tourists who come to Salem who want to research their history," he said.

According to the library, 880 people made 2,000 visits in 2003.

Baker also says the cutbacks in staff will make it harder for academics and historians to conduct research.

"I have serious doubts about their ability to make the place accessible to visiting researchers. It's going to be more difficult for them to do. I think they should be making things more accessible rather than making it less accessible," he said.

Richard Trask, who directs the Archival Center at the Peabody Institute Library in Danvers, was also critical of the reduction in hours for walk-in users.

"I'm actually more concerned about the little guy than the scholar," he said. "The average person who wants to do family genealogy, or wants to do research on his community is going to be cut off significantly."

But Grimes, who is the head administrator of the library, said it would continue to provide the same services to all visitors.

"This is a story about a library taking appropriate steps to make sure that it has a viable future and it's not just a little backwater where a few people go to do research," he said.

Grimes declined to state the library's budget for digitizing its collection, but said "it will cost huge amounts of money."

According to Joan Norris, a spokeswoman for the museum, the University of Virginia has already posted the library's witchcraft papers online. Norris also said the library invested $100,000 last year in new computer equipment "to increase its online capability" and had already scanned 26,000 records.

In addition, the library has undergone a $3 million face-lift in recent years, restoring its crystal chandeliers and wooden floors while installing a new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system throughout the building.

Trask, the Danvers archivist, lauded the library's decision to move toward online services, but questioned the planning process, and specifically the amount of time it would take to digitize the collection.

"They could have 100 technicians working several hours a day and it would still take several lifetimes for a significant amount of material to be put on the Internet," he said.

Steven Rosenberg can be reached at rosenberg@globe.com.