Serving Reading to Losers

(Title from 76003.1414: Library)

I love libraries. I grew up across the street from one which was housed in an historic building with wood and pillars and stuff like that. I could walk there whenever I wanted to and it also had the advantage of being on a large piece of property which was sloping so in winter months also doubled as a sledding hill, and had lush landscaping good for hide-and-seek in the summer months.

I love that my parents read to me. I loved reading to my kids and I can't wait to read to my grandson. I don't have a Kindle but I do have an iPod. I've listened to a few audio books in various formats over the years. But I still prefer to get them free from the library, on paper.

We just had an election in my city to decide whether the local city library should merge with the larger county system. It so happens the county library system is the third larges library system in the country. It pretty much boiled down to money. The city can't afford to keep it in their budget and can save a lot of money by turning it over to the county. The local residents would then pay additional property taxes to pay for this privelege.

Turns out this was a pretty hot issue as well as the only issue on the ballot. Last I checked, the margin for merging with the county library was only 46 votes. I voted for the measure. I think the county does a great job and although no one wants to pay more in taxes, I think improving the local library goes a long way towards improving the local community.

But now, now that it's too late, I'm wondering about the cost. I have some idea about how much the merger will cost as it was highly publicized. What I don't know is how much to scrap the paper format altogether? What if information was free to all in electronic format? Then the consideration would have to be how much does it cost to get it all in electronic format (if it isn't already) and how much to make sure everyone has access to it?

I would hate to lose the institution of the Library because it is part of Community and it has librarians which are very useful human resources. But which is better for the betterment of society as a whole? Which makes us richer as a community of people?

I'm not sure there's a point to all this except I love my library. In fact all libraries as I like to see the local library in places where I travel, too.

Check it out.