Slog Tipper Charlotte writes: “Dear Paul – Sorry to ruin your morning, but Philadelphia did it to me first. Cheers, C.”
The thing that ruined both of our mornings is this bit of news. Apparently, Philadelphia will soon be library-less:
All Free Library of Philadelphia Customers,
We deeply regret to inform you that without the necessary budgetary legislation by the State Legislature in Harrisburg, the City of Philadelphia will not have the funds to operate our neighborhood branch libraries, regional libraries, or the Parkway Central Library after October 2, 2009.
Have you hugged the Seattle Public Library lately? Thanks—I think—to Charlotte.
I bet they won’t shut down collecting on books that are still checked out on October 3. I happily subsidize my local library through profound late fees.
I wonder if the teabaggers will hail this as a victory?
End socialized reading!
wow, can they do that?
All of them? So they have zero money? What the fuck?
Didn’t Ben Franklin start the library system in Philadelphia?
good god, that is monstrous. Democracy just died a little today. I fucking hate America sometimes.
Hold on, looks like a temporary funding issue and it is not a done deal yet. The closure announcement on the website might be a little too dire for dramatic effect.
Did send a chill up my spine.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/…
They’re angling for donations. Chicago readers might want to send them a few bucks. For the unemployed, the library might be the only place they can search for jobs online, send e-mails, or work on a resume. It also might double as free child-care during the day. The lives of the Jobless in Chicago just got harder.
But I was told by some right wing wacko on Slog that we would be able to access our newspapers at the local library once they went totally digital?!?!?
Why do Republicans and the rest of the anti-tax gang hate America so much?
That statement is a threat to the state legislature, not a done deal.
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
The Times broke a story last week about the leaked budget for the library here. Expect hours cut, massive layoffs of librarians to be replaced by paraprofessionals with little training paid at half the price, and the end of community outreach. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they shut down a few of the neighborhood branches. Eric Liu and the library board should be for their inept governance of the library and creating a “world-class library system” without the foresight or intelligence on how it was going to be funded and staffed.
@13 link?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ed…
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ed…
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ed…
@17,
Yeah, that’s convincing.
It’s not just the libraries. We’re about to lose just about every city service due to budget deadlocks. The mayor has a short term fix plan that requires approval from the state govt (raising sales tax 1 penny in the city, changing city pension funding), and since the state govt all hates the city govt (and vice versa), and the rest of the state hates Philadelphia and we don’t get them, we’re totally screwed.