The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is walking the same lonely corridor already traveled by the Pittsburgh Public Schools, the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, the city's Public Safety Department and countless other organizations managing their operations for a shrinking populace.

The library's directors decided Tuesday to close four branches and merge two others, actions they would have rather sidestepped. Closing a branch has never happened in the system's 114-year-old history, and many of the 19 locations are nearly that old. Even the youngest is more than 20. But rising operating costs and changing usage patterns make downsizing necessary.

The largest piece of the library's $23.3 million budget for 2009 came from the Regional Asset District's 1 percent countywide sales tax. The RAD tax has been the library system's salvation, providing 72 percent of its annual budget, a consistent source of funding systemwide. For next year, despite declining sales tax revenue, RAD will allocate $16.7 million, the same amount it provided this year.

That's why it's not fair to assert that the city of Pittsburgh provides just $40,000 for libraries. That allocation from the city budget is in addition to the millions in sales taxes paid by its residents, along with their neighbors in the suburbs and anyone else who shops in Allegheny County.

Historically, another 20 percent of library funding has come from the state, but the figures vary from year to year. Even now, as a 2009-10 budget finally is emerging in Harrisburg, the library system knows it will see reductions, but it isn't sure how much.

There is no easy answer. Hundreds of worthy organizations compete for RAD funding, so it cannot provide a larger share for libraries. The same pressures apply to state dollars. It is unlikely that voters will encourage lawmakers to raise taxes to provide more money for libraries, either.

Barbara K. Mistick, the library's president, has asked for a city-county task force to determine if there is another way to guarantee predictable funding for libraries. Absent that, closing some branches seems the wisest course.

The library system, with 325 employees, already has a hiring freeze, frozen salaries and benefit cuts. Library hours have been reduced, and more cutbacks will start in January. But simply trimming hours or allocations for new library material will not save enough.

Closing a library hurts. It is no more welcome than closing a school or fire house or police station. In some ways, it may be worse. A library is an asset that caters to all segments of the population, whether the people visiting are old or young, well-off or struggling, searching for entertainment or something more essential like a job via computer resources.

For many of us, libraries are the places where we learned to love reading, found friends in fictional characters, traveled to faraway places on the map or merely in the imagination. They were and remain part of our development and our dreaming.

Reality is intruding on the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and we can only mourn the loss.

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