Buffalo Central Library (Buffalo & Erie County Public Library website photo).
“The Downtown Central Library will be closing temporarily at 3 p.m. weekdays until further notice.” That was the brief message on the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library website. Their Facebook page expanded the message slightly, “Reduced weekday hours are a temporary measure due to safety concerns.” Behind that message is yet another issue some libraries are facing in these troubled times. Too often, society's problems seem to be playing out on the floors of libraries, once a place to escape them, a bastion of peace and quiet.
The main branch of the Buffalo library has moved up its closing times, from 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and from 5:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Friday. There is a significance to these closing times, and it's not related to budget cuts, often the cause of reduced library hours. It's related to school closing times. The library is closing in time to prevent dismissed schoolchildren from entering the premises. That sounds so contrary to a library's purpose, to educate, particularly the young.
The problem is that some of the “students” have been fighting in the library. One of the girls told the Buffalo News she witnessed another girl have a seizure during a fight. The News described the situation as “a surge in high school-age violence that has made ugly encounters in the library suddenly commonplace.” Unable to control the fighting, library staff determined it was safest to simply close the library before the kids got out of school. Fights have not been limited to single confrontations but there may be 20 kids involved in a fight. Library Director John Spears was quoted by WKBW as saying, “It was everything from verbal harassment screaming yelling threats some very serious all the way up to physical altercations.” WGRZ also quoted Spears as explaining, “We want to make sure this is as safe as possible, and so we changed these hours in an attempt to keep something truly horrible from happening.”
According to WKBW, teen fighting hasn't been limited to the library. It has taken place at school, in the mall, and at the AMC movie theater in the theater district. They said officials reported there were 150 youths involved in the theater incident. But, if you think all the problems are caused by unruly kids, Buffalo is the place where an “adult” gunman walked into a supermarket and mowed down 10 shoppers.
Both Library Director Spears and Buffalo's Mayor consider the situation intolerable and are determined to reopen the library to normal hours again soon.
Libraries have been dealing with many issues in recent days that Andrew Carnegie never thought of when he was building libraries across the country a century ago. Fighting is just the latest to force a library to close its doors. Earlier this year, several Colorado libraries were forced to shut down entirely for a few weeks because of unacceptably high contamination of metamphetamines. Patrons were doing more than just reading. Others had to close off sections or bathrooms as they became shelters for homeless people, some of whom could be threatening. Library censorship has been sweeping the nation of late, some librarians being forced to remove books. Florida even passed a law that puts school librarians at risk of going to prison for displaying books of which state censors don't approve. Other libraries have been subjected to protests by those upset that some books have to be sold or even disposed of because there isn't enough space to bring in anything new. School librarians have been called pornographers and groomers by parents who never read the books that supposedly make them so angry and threatening. And, of course, there is the chronic problem of budget cuts and underfunded libraries.
So what are libraries to do? There isn't a lot they can do because this is not something they created. It is our problem, society's problem. If we are bored and unmotivated, violent, highly politicized, angry, hateful, poor and homeless, our problems will spill over into our libraries. They reflect society, and until we can fix society's problems, we can't fix the libraries' problems, other than to shut them down when the chaos becomes intolerable.
Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Galileo Galilei. Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo tolemaico, e copernicano. Firenze, 1632
Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Saverio Manetti. Storia naturale degli uccelli. Firenze, 1771-76
Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Fortunato Depero. Depero futurista. Rovereto, 1927
Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Nicolas Visscher. Atlas minor sive totius orbis terrarum contracta delineat ex conatibus. Amsterdam, circa 1649-95
Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Andreas Vesalius. Anatomia. Addita nunc. Antiquorum Anatome. Venezia, 1604
Aste Bolaffi, June 17-18: Tristan Tzara and Salvador Dalì. Grains et Issues. Parigi, 1935
Bonhams, June 14-23: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presentation Gold Pocket Watch. Estimate: $20,000 - 30,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: Presentation Copy of the First Issue of the Lincoln Douglas Debates Signed by Abraham Lincoln in Pencil to a Sangamon County Illinois Republican. Estimate: $150,000 - 250,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: A Senate Resolution Signed in the Tense Days After the Union's Humiliating Defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run. Estimate: $80,000 - $120,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: Seven Passages to a Flight, an Artists Book with a Story Quilt by Faith Ringgold, the Publisher's Own Copy. Estimate: $80,000 - 120,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: A New Charter for Virginia, A Response to the First Armed Rebellion in the American Colonies. Estimate: $15,000 - 25,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: Earliest obtainable printing of the Bill of Rights. Estimate: $8,000 - 12,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: Edward Curtis Orotone. Estimate: $7,000 - 9,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: Owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Butter or Dessert Plate from FDR's State Dinner Service. Estimate: $3,000 - 5,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: An Early Large-Format Plan of the City of Washington. Estimate: $1,500 - 2,500
Bonhams, June 14-23: Containing the First Map to Name the Hudson River. Estimate: $20,000 - 30,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: America's First Major Novelist, a Complete Chapter in Autograph Manuscript by James Fenimore Cooper. Estimate: $15,000 - 20,000
Bonhams, June 14-23: The Only Full-Length Book by Jefferson, with the Justly Famous Map. Estimate: $12,000 - 18,000
June 25, 2026
Doyle, June 25: Houdini's biography, boldly signed. $3,000 to $5,000.
Doyle, June 25: A volume from Abraham Lincoln's library, signed just before heading to Washington for his inauguration. $20,000 to $30,000.
Doyle, June 25: A very early Confederate recruiting manual belonging to the chief commissary in Lee's Army. $600 to $800.
Doyle, June 25: Rare hand-colored lithographs of the life of Napoleon. $20,000 to $30,000.
Doyle, June 25: The "Holster Atlas" of the American Revolution. $5,000 to $8,000.
Doyle, June 25: Jewish ceremonies in fine hand-colored engravings. $7,000 to $10,000.
Doyle, June 25: A very rare work on Turkish military costume. $1,000 to $1,500.
June 25, 2026
Doyle, June 25: The most important illustrated work on the Mexican-American War. $10,000 to $15,000.
Doyle, June 25: The finest illustrated book on Afghanistan. $10,000 to $15,000.
Doyle, June 25: Henry Justice Ford St. George rescues the Princess from the horrible Dragon. $2,000 to $3,000.
Doyle, June 25: A rare work of Prussian Army uniforms under Frederick William II, with exquisite hand-colored engravings. $800 to $1,200.
Doyle, June 25: Lenny Bruce typed letter signed to a Village bohemian during his obscenity trials, with a manuscript note and drawing. $300 to $500.
Doyle, June 25: Schiff's scarce Shanghai Sketchbook. $300 to $500.
Doyle, June 25: The first accurate published representation of the American flag. $2,000 to $4,000.
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 123. Celebrate 250 Years of Independence with Original Stars and Stripes (1790) Est. $1,400 - $1,700
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 20. Keulen's Spectacular Chart of the World Featuring California as an Island (1728) Est. $12,000 - $15,000
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 42. Schedel's Ancient World Map with Fantastic Humanoid Creatures (1493) Est. $14,000 - $17,000
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 591. Matching Set of 3 Stunning Globe Gores of Eastern Asia from Coronelli's 3.5 Foot Globe (1688) Est. $5,500 - $7,000
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 9. Speed's Popular World Map with Allegorical Representations of the Elements (1651) Est. $14,000 - $17,000
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 168. First Separate Map of Kansas & Nebraska Territories (1854) Est. $5,500 - $7,000
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 43. Only Macrobius Map with Britain Attached to Europe (1515) Est. $800 - $950
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 250. Rare Map of Boston and One of the Earliest Maps of the Revolutionary War (1775) Est. $2,000 - $2,300
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 79. Schenk's Uncommon Map Featuring Two Figurative Title Cartouches (1696) Est. $1,200 - $1,500
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 681. Hand-Colored Image of the Annunciation to the Shepherds (1502) Est. $800 - $950
Sotheby's Book Week 2 June - 9 July
Sotheby’s, June 25: Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations, on its 250th anniversary. $180,000 to $250,000.
Sotheby’s, June 17: Fontana, Lucio. Concetto Spaziale. 1967. Leporello en papier doré. Bel exemplaire signé. €4,000 to $€,000.
Sotheby’s, June 25: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”. $150,000 to $200,000.
Sotheby’s, June 25: Washington, George (as First President). Washington decries “an ostentatious imitation, or mimickry of Royalty” in his Presidency. $250,000 to $500,000.
Sotheby’s, June 17: Lope de Vega. Rare manuscrit autographe signé de la préface dédicatoire de "El Cardenal de Belen" (le cardinal de Bethléem), pièce composée en 1610. €40,000 to €60,000.
