The library has an overall budget of about $8.5 million, Mason said. It is expected to be about the same for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. The library is poised to receive the same $3 million next year that it has received from the city for five years now, Mason said.

The library-closure proposal is an effort to work within the proposed budget, Mason said.

“We fully recognize the city’s funding challenges in these economic times, so this is not an effort to seek more money from the city,” Mason said. “This is an effort to do the best we can with the funding that we have from the city and the state.”

The library is in the midst of a strategic-planning process that it hopes to wrap up by May, Mason said. Library leaders are examining ways to shift funding away from caring for aging buildings and provide services as efficiently as they can with the money they have, she said.

The branches that would close are: Fox Point, Knight Memorial, Olneyville, Smith Hill, Wanskuck and Washington Park (which has already been closed due to some facility problems).

Although Mason said the proposed new hours at the remaining branches have not been finalized, she said they would include evenings and weekends. The branches with increased hours would be the central library and the Rochambeau and Mt. Pleasant branches. The South Providence branch would operate on a schedule similar to its current one, Mason said.