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....
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.
We homeschoolers do buy books for our children. The vast majority of homeschoolers, here in NJ, meet at churches and run their own lending libraries. Some of us do use the library, like anyone else, for research and/or as a meeting place, but it doesn't cost the taxpayers any additional money for us to meet there. We're like other people who meet at the library, borrow books, and do research.
The way I see it, here in NJ, we pay a fortune in property taxes for the public schools. We receive nothing in return, so I don't feel bad about using the library. We use it regularly. I'm sure we've more than covered our cost through taxes, books donated, books purchased through the Friends, and all the late fees we had to pay. ;-) That said, any overspending at the library should be cut. But, of all the gov't services, the libraries where we live have been invaluable. I think the libraries should handle everything - let's move the DMV and everything into them. ;-)