User fees
are a very acceptable way to charge the people who use the service,
The problem is do any of the users
value the service enough to pay a fee.
Also, what
do our taxes go for if not the Library.
How many people use the Library? If user
fees will not pay for it and our tax dollars don’t cover it, then we
should do a need assessment.
Thanks Tom
Tom Severson
Box 736
Winona, Mn. 55987
507 452 3402 ext 214
-----Original
Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf
Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004
8:08 AM
To: Online Democracy
Subject: Re: [Winona] No New Taxes
While
no one wants more taxes, I have suggested before that those of us who are able
pay a library fee each year. Even at 2.00 a month that is only 24.00 a year to
use our library. (which I do on a regular basis). I would pay a fee to
have my library card and to those in the community who cannot afford to pay a
fee would either get theirs at a reduced rate or perhaps through whatever funds
the library uses now?
Just a
thought. I cannot* imagine not being able to go to the library.
Linda
Fort
[Winona
Online Democracy]
Is
this the specter of the future for our community and state if people continue
to believe that having a few more cents in their pockets is more important than
having more sense in their minds?
I encourage you to read the attached article from today's Strib and consider if
we are currently on this very very path that Salinas, CA finds itself. We are
already experiencing reduced services from our exemplary public library, and of
course I worry about the quality of education we will be providing to our
children in the public school system. This is not meant to provoke argument,
but thought. Are we as a society abandoning the very public institutions that
have made this a great state/country? I just finished listening to an hour of
the late Elmer L. Andersen on public radio and realized that we are turning
away from his philosophy of public investment. I am a lifelong advocate of
libraries and education, and I worry that both are increasingly considered
expendable. In addition, if Salinas is successful in finding a corporate
sponsor, how will that affect the diversity of books and resources that the
library can offer?
Vicki Englich
Vu
This newsSteinbeck's
hometown to close all its libraries
Rachel Konrad,
Associated Press
December 28, 2004 STEIN1228
SALINAS,
CALIF. -- Mary Jean Gamble organized the John Steinbeck historical archives,
supervised the Steinbeck literature collection and ranks as an authority on
Salinas history and genealogy.
After nearly 23 years with the Salinas Public Library, she may know more about
the "Grapes of Wrath" or "Cannery Row" than anyone else in
the author's hometown.
So how would Steinbeck have reacted to the news that the cash-strapped city is
closing its libraries in the spring?
"He'd obviously be upset. He knew that literature can lift and elevate the
spirit and enable humans to rise above any situation," Gamble said.
Facing record deficits, the City Council voted Dec. 14 to shut all three of
Salinas' libraries, including the branches named after Steinbeck and labor
leader Cesar Chavez. The blue-collar town of 150,000 could become the most
populous U.S. city without a public library.
Salinas, nicknamed "salad bowl to the nation" for the lettuce and
broccoli fields nearby, is the 1902 birthplace of the Nobel Prize-winning
author of "Cannery Row" and "Of Mice and Men." Steinbeck,
who died in 1968, described the region as "pastures of heaven" and
memorialized Salinas in his 1952 novel "East of Eden."
But after voters Nov. 2 rejected a half-cent increase in the sales tax to
preserve city services, Salinas has drawn the scorn of bibliophiles around the
world. Editorials in newspapers from New Zealand to London have condemned the
closings.
"It's embarrassing, not to mention inconvenient," said Ben Lopez, 69,
who visits the Steinbeck branch at least twice a week. "Where else will I
go to check out material -- Prunedale?" he said, referring to a relatively
spartan branch of the Monterey County Free Libraries system.
Because of Salinas' large number of poor farm workers and immigrants, the
city's libraries are popular destinations for people seeking citizenship
primers, literacy courses, English-as-a-second language tapes, Internet access
and after-school programs. Roughly 1,900 people visit each day.
"The reality is that we live in a blue-collar community where people are
struggling, and they're afraid of new taxes," Mayor Anna Caballero said.
Salinas is not alone. More than 1,100 libraries nationwide have cut hours or
staff.
All three branches in Salinas are set to close by May or June.
Some residents are hoping a private donor will rescue the library. And
librarians are considering seeking corporate sponsorship.
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