Boston Public Library president Amy Ryan has just told an overflow crowd at Lower Mills library that she will "strongly support" keeping BPL branches open if sufficient funding is supplied to do so. More than 100 people are packed into the Lower Mills branch on Richmond Street to hear on update on the BPL's plans. The library was supposed to close this fall, but was granted a reprieve by Mayor Tom Menino last summer.

Ryan has told the assembly that she will recommend that the board of trustees vote to keep the branches open. Such a move would mark a dramatic reversal of the BPL's prior positions on branch libraries.

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