Do you check out books or DVDs from the Library? Do you come to the Library for story time, to use a free computer or listen to an author? Or do you come for homework help for students, Internet access, research, community events, job search activities, or online learning? The Seattle Public Library needs to hear from you!
The Library wants your input on priorities for improvement in four essential areas: hours, books and materials, computers and online services, and maintenance. Strategies for stabilizing Library funding will also be discussed. Please consider attending these community meetings and help improve your library system. For more information, visit www.spl.org and select ?Libraries for All: A Plan for the Present, A Foundation for the Future,? or call 206-386-4636.
The community meetings are scheduled as follows:
?10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Jan. 7, Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Auditorium (206-386-4636)
?6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18, Ballard Branch, 5614 22nd Ave. N.W. (206-684-4089).
If you cannot attend a meeting, you can visit the library online to share your feedback at www.spl.org. For more information call 206-386-4636.
I think HOURS are the primary concern here.? Every.single.time I try to go to the Magnolia branch, it is closed.? Every time!? There are days when it doesn’t open until 1pm and other days it doesn’t open at all.? I don’t think that is providing the service that our community needs or deserves.
p.s.? I’d also like a drive-up drop box.? That parking lot is crazy!
The city spends a ton of money to remodel the library, then doesn’t keep it open long enough to serve the community. Library hours are manipulated to punish voters who don’t succumb to the wishes of pols in regard to their desire for your vote for higher taxes. “Vote the way we want or we’ll be forced cut library hours.” This instead of cutting overabundant staff at City Hall, et al. ?Library hours become the carrot and the stick. ?
I am old fashioned so I like the “idea” of having a library for folks who might use one. But I fear that libraries are part of the “old” physical media world (books, DVDs, CDs, etc.) which is being phased out.
Like it or not, we are headed to a world where physical media is obsolete and everyone reads, listens, and watches on various size screens and has access to just about EVERYTHING ever written, filmed, or recorded (and not just the limited stock on hand).
Personally, I like the feel of a book and magazine in my hand and don’t want to be dependent on some hard disk in a “cloud” and the internet having a “good day” to get at my book/magazine/movie/music. But I am “old” and my nieces/nephews get EVERYTHING they want to read, watch, or listen to….online. Worse, people are spending more and more of their precious free time on time-sucking “social networking” sites revealing waaayyyyy too much info about their personal lives.?
With no physical media left, God help us if we are ever thrown back into a no battery/electricity world with no physical books to tell us how to do the most basic things to stay alive. “How do we grow food?….no worries…I have an ebook about farming on my iPad….let me just….oh crap the battery just died.”