On a personal note, if my library closed, the people I see on the computers would no longer have internet access, the homeschoolers who use the library regularly would not have all those books, the grumpy old men who come in everyday would have to get their newspapers some other way, bibliophiles (like me) who read more books than they can possible afford to purchase will go bankrupt just to feed their habit.
I posted another vanity on whether conservatives or liberals were more likely to close public libraries. Replies were mixed. Looking at what is going on in other states, actions are also mixed. Some governors who reduce library funding are dimocrats, others are Republicans. Libraries, it seems, are an easy target when it comes to budget cuts. Whether or not you think librarians themselves are a liberal lot, please be aware that librarians, more than any other profession, oppose censorship in any form.
Finally, would somebody please show me how to activate a link within the body of a thread or comment?
Our lardass Governor Rendell hit libraries and state historical sites hard when we refused to give him the tax increases he demanded. We closed the gap with volunteers.
I am asking freepers to ask their reps to CUT the budget to the public libraries!!!
My sister gets paid $125/hr from multiple libraries to teach arts & crafts. The same libraries also teach yoga classes(competition with the gym) and lets you rent DVD (why have netflix/redbox).
Apparently most libraries pay teachers $125/hr in return for each supporting budget increases. Paying someone $10/hr or asking for a volunteer is too much!
CUT THE LIBRARY BUDGET!
Sorry - I’m for cutting the library budgets. Our librarians are rude, fat, ugly and refuse to help the customers, they just yell at people all day.
The schools have librarys, and if you want internet access, buy a cheap netbook go to McDonalds. The homeschoolers can purchase books for their students just like I pay tuition to keep my kids out of the public school. The grumpy old men can get grumpier or buy a newspaper. As for the Librarians, this is a real job? They sort and shelve books.
Nothing is “free” and if the libraries need more funding perhaps they should charge for some of their services...you know...practice a little capitalism....
Cut the library budget. Anybody who wants to do research can use the Internet. For those who want to rent movies, go to your local supermarkets. The A&P by me rents them cheap. For those who like to hang out at the library and read the newspaper, spend 50c on the local rag.
Why do we even need public libraries anymore?
I mean, seriously?
“The proposed budget cut is about $1.00 for each New Jersey resident.”
According to the director of my county library consortium The average local budgetary contribution to libraries is over $67 per resident.
In other words the proposed cut in state aid is about 1.5% of the library budgets.
I’m a heavy user and supporter of my local library, but at this point I think that they are “crying wolf”.
I think libraries should be privately run anyway.
Librarians routinely dispose of politically incorrect books. The 150 year old Mechanics' Institute library in San Francisco has a few 100 year old books still on their shelves, but none survive that offend any of the political fashions over the last 100 years. It's as if the bizarre values of modern SF existed 100 years ago.
Nope.
Libraries are becoming obsolete.
If a local municipality wants to make up the cuts, that would be up to the citizens of that municipality.
And that’s the way it should be.
The closer our tax dollars stay to our own communities, the more control we have over them.
The State of New Jersey should be involved in maintaining state roads, state police, state courts, state prisons, motor vehicle administration, and not much else.
Local municipalities should assume local administration with the consent of the citizens.
Period.
However . . .
Christie's right in asking libraries to share the pain. Money is tight and communities have to make serious choices. If cities *really* want to declare their libraries as unnecessary (they are not) they should have the freedom to do so. If you do not have the freedom to make bad decisions, you are not really free.
If libraries end up with shortfalls they need to find ways to cut their internal budgets and/or make up lost revenues. (Library Friends groups can help with both. In the previous town in which I lived the Friends staged an annual play that brought $20,000 after expenses for the library — in a town of $19,000.)
I will also point out that there are librarians that are completely oblivious to the true sources of the moneys used to run their libraries. Some seem to believe that the money magically appears, kind of in the same way that the stork brings babies. It can be very frustrating trying to explain that when personal incomes in communities drop it is unreasonable for local governments to raise taxes to make up shortfalls due to drops in sales taxes and other economically-based sources of taxation.