Hang around long enough and you end up agreeing once with ANYBODY. There's very little Mark Anderson says I agree with, but I have to admit that, at least in these times with a sagging economy, our library board should focus on what its CORE mission is and try to do that as well as possible. Acquiring a media collection is about as good a statement as I can think of. We want resources from the library board. We don't want glass cathedrals of learning. We don't want schools without walls (we should pay the tax to the school district for that). And basically we don't want our local boards trying to build empires by adding functions. But we do want from them the best performance possible for the money of the core mission. If Scenario A is the best statement of that, go with Scenario A.
By the way, with all the technology they've acquired, they also might think of where they can now save bucks using it. An example of how it has helped ME is that I seldom GO to the central library. Don't have to. Look up books online. Order them online. Receive emails when they arrive at the community library I ordered them delivered to. Frankly, so far as my life has gone in the last decade, the central library could be a climate-controlled warehouse, with picking technology. But that would also cost a lot of money to install. So, it seems to me that until economic recovery makes the plague of deficits ease up, they would do well to ask (as we all must when our income slackens) "what is the most we can do with what we GOT?" Flexibility and adaptability are shown by the ability of the brain to shift gears to meet changes in the environment. I think what library patrons and taxpayers who support the library have a right to expect that from the board and the administrators. There is no earthly reason I can think of why a librarian can't be imaginative and adaptive. But the word has to come down the chain of command, with the voter at the top of that chain. I see a lot of people who argue from a perspective of "we don't want to change". Which means they don't like our present economic predicament and think they can stick the heads in the sand. There is nothing "progressive" about that. And you don't win any battles with conservative powers by pretending they didn't, at least temporarily, change things. But look at this dire strait as a learning opportunity. Our parents learned a ton in the Depression, things they never forgot. Most of human intelligence comes not from when things were comfortable, but when it took an increase of intelligence just to get by. So I think, in a mild way, we're at that point again. And I'd really like to see all our local governments respond as "homo sapiens", not as balky children. Jim Mork Cooper Neighborhood Longfellow Community Minneapolis A great town, which can and WILL BE greater! TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
