Anybody else think there's something a little oneSIDED when Democrats talk politics at the memorial of a political scientist and get a "backlash". Or a DFL council member notes the passing of a leading racist and is threatened with a "backlash". Yet a major party of the RIGHT does one outrageous thing after another and is NEVER warned "be careful you'll get a backlash". Yes, that is what we've heard over and over: Only Democrats seem to suffer a "backlash". Someone EXPLAIN that to me. It makes no intuitive sense. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The trouble with the argument that we have an influx of immigrants and that "temporarily" the library must exceed its core mission is that the USA is made UP of immigrants, most of whom never had any of the services mentioned. My father was an imimgrant who knew not a word of English when he first set foot in this country. No library was providing these "needed services" when that happened. Therefore, this is a case of someone inventing a need. And that's what some of these public agencies do. They have this patronizing view of some element of society, and they argue that they need extra money because there is some population group that can't cope. Well, when you are staring a deficit in the face, you just might have to learn something yourself. How to make a hard choice. To repeat what I've said all along, the deficits shouldn't be forever (if nothing else, the population should EVENTUALLY learn that the deficits are no accident and vote out the people who keep them coming for their own political agenda). But while they are there, learn to adapt. Do triage. Save the most critical roles.
And by the way, a library, if the technology causes accelerated book obsolenscence, should be learning new ways of acquisition. When the cost of acacemic textbooks began its ascent to absurdity a few eons ago, the most astute of my professors adjusted in two ways. They assigned reading out of the reserve library; and they handed out copies of material, not requiring students to buy hardbacks for one quarter's use. I see no reason why librarians can't brainstorm some variant approaches to acquisition. There's no reason they have to just order everything that comes out in the most expensive way. "The public will want to borrow it". Up to a point, that has some legitimacy, but I don't see the library jumping on every work of Kathleen Woodiwiss, even though she's a popular local writer. Maybe what the library has to do is pursue the most SIGNIFICANT new releases and perhaps wait for cheaper editions of less significant stuff to come out. I'm still hoping someday I will be able to download lots of books into a portable electronic reader. Think of the trees that might be saved! ===== Jim Mork Cooper-Longfellow-Minneapolis: A Great Town Whose Best Days Are To Come --------------- __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com 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
