Comments on: Philadelphia Free Library System is shutting down http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html Brain candy for Happy Mutants Mon, 15 Sep 2014 23:11:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2 By: Anonymous http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587520 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587520 Meanwhile, here in New York, the NYPL is expanding hours at many branches in order to accommodate rising demand, especially from people who work long hours. Libraries are still very relevant, and very popular.

source:
http://nypl.org/press/releases/?article_id=334

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By: Antinous / Moderator http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587779 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587779 Again, not every family has a computer at home. Not every family that has a computer, has one for each child. Not every home is an environment where it’s possible to study.

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By: Anonymous http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-588803 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-588803 This isn’t just about the libraries being held hostage in PA. Social services have already been decimated by the moral failure of the state legislaturre: hundreds have lost their jobs, mental health services have been discontinued; non-profits have lost funding and people are literally going hungry. This isn’t just politcal brinkmanship with the libraries at the center. The libraries have been without funding for a couple of months but have been hanging in there until the last minute. The last minute is almost here.

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By: Anonymous http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587526 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587526 This is in part because the PA state budget has not been approved yet, which is truly deplorable. Michael Nutter (our Mayor) is also stating that because there is no budget approved, that they will have to close local police and fire departments and cut staff as well. Much of this is fear-mongering – I am confident that once the PA state budget is approved, that much of this will go away.

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By: Anonymous http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-588041 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-588041 A lot of people are assuming libraries have been singled out. That’s not the case. Here is a quick and dirty version of what’s going on:

Philly has a huge budget gap. To fill the gap, the mayor proposed changing some stuff that the state legislature would have to approve. Problem is, the legislature is mired in the state budget crisis, so Philly’s problems took a back seat.

When the legislature ignored the city budget month after month, the mayor decided to take a big risk. He figured that if he threatened to slash critical services like police, firemen, garbage collection, and libraries, the state would meet all his demands. This is the so-called Plan C “doomsday” budget. It was never meant to actually be implemented. But now the unions are involved, so who the heck knows when the budget will be approved. The doomsday budget may very well go into effect.

I love reading and support libraries 100%, but I’m a lot less worried about these cuts than seeing the police and fire departments slashed. And every-other-week garbage collection? Not lookin’ too appetizing. And then there are the nonprofit social service providers who have already laid off workers, missed payroll, and cut back hours. A lot of them are going to fold forever.

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By: Anonymous http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587787 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587787 I haven’t been to a public library in like 10 years.

That being said, it is still a shame.

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By: demidan http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587534 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587534 (Please feel free to disemvowel me)

Jesus fucking Christ on a stick! Nobody needs to “bomb” us back to the stone age we are doing fine all by ourselves thank you.

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By: Anonymous http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587792 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587792 ben franklin himself must be rolling over in his grave over this.

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By: robbt http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587538 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587538 Sounds like they need to have some protests in Philly, when Ohio threatened to cut library funding by 2/3rds there were a lot of protests such as this read-in in the state house lobby. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Q88PYIZks

I think libraries are great, and although grassroots booklending/swapping is rad it doesn’t provide the same infrastructure as full-time intelligent people working to figure out the best way to disseminate and share books.

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By: wackyvorlon http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587794 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587794 Do you have any concept the cost of the resources that a library provides? The internet is no substitute, many of the resources present in the library are not even available online. Those that are, are extremely expensive to access that way.

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By: Chris Tucker http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-588307 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-588307 @#20

Some retards would cheer at the closure of the public libraries.

These retards are Libertarians.

(Via the invaluable Critiques of Libertarianism website.)

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By: theblogposterguy http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587543 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587543 The library system is not “shutting down” for good; They’re threatening a temporary closure pending a budget which has yet to pass. Once the budget passes, they will reopen. Although even a temporary closing is a bad thing, you should step away from the edge, Cory, and not over-inflate the issue.

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By: BdgBill http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587554 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587554 I have nice memories of my town library. It was one of the first places I was allowed to go unsupervised when I was around 8 or so.

Sadly, I would not dream of letting my kids spend time alone at our public library. For the entirety of it’s daily operating hours our library is pretty much a homeless shelter. The last two times I went inside every single seat was occupied by homeless people, many of them sleeping.

In the morning when the library opens, there is a crowd of homeless waiting to get in. When it closes at night they have to be woken up and kicked out. Throughout the day there is a group of them just outside the entrance smoking and panhandling.

It’s sad but I would support closing our system down as well and using the money to give poor people free internet access at home.

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By: EMJ http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587557 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587557 In light of the current financial situation wouldn’t it be good if americans could get over calling their country “the richest country in the world”?

Libraries are great institutions. Try raising a child without one. Or getting an education.

Once you have your education and job safely in hand perhaps you could get by with fiction paperbacks and non-fiction bought on line. But it would certainly be a poorer life.

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By: Anonymous http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-588069 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-588069 This is all a game of politics. The state can not seem to get it’s act together and do what is necessary to allow the city to pass a 1% sales tax increase and make changes to the pension to stop this from happening. Nutter is playing hardball to try and get some action but unfortunately the governor and state legislators don’t seem to care. Plan C not only closes libraries, but basically guts the criminal justice system which in a city with Philly’s crime rate is unthinkable.

PA is the only state in the nation without a budget, a bi-partisan proposal was hammered out in Harrisburg and now the Governor says he won’t sign it. This is affecting libraries and services across the state since no payments have been made to anyone since June 30th. People have been laid off at the county library headquarters in Montgomery County and services are being cut or suspended due to this impasse.

Even so, this newest budget proposal on the table will cut the public library subsidy by 34% and statewide library services such as databases and the statewide library card program by 75%. This is huge for libraries across PA and you will see services getting cut at libraries if this passes.

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By: Anonymous http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-591145 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-591145 This really disgusts me. I wish this was an excerpt from one of Cory’s novels, and not a page from real life. This country has gone to Hell. How can they decide not to fund libraries? How can a city this size allow this to happen? What’s next on the chopping block after libraries? Sorry folks, but due to no funds there will be no more trash pick up, police, fire dept., ambulances, street repairs, or water supply…. If they cut much else you may have to abandon the city and fend for yourselves elsewhere- like sections of Detroit.

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By: Anonymous http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587819 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587819 People demand to to pay less in taxes, I hope the conservatives manage to lower taxes and destroy all the city services that go with the taxes.

When the conservatives sell off all the public buildings, and burn all the books, electing progressives won’t bring back the Library or the community hospitals or clinics.

We have the government we deserve.

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By: Anonymous http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587309 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587309 Can we start a donation program? How much do they need?

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By: jfrancis http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587310 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587310 And in Philadelphia, no less. I’m just glad Ben Franklin isn’t alive to see this.

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By: thrillbot http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-588334 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-588334 The Commonwealth of PA is basically trying to assert control over Philadelphia. The city wants to increase its own sales tax by 1% for five years in order to balance its budget in the current economic climate. However, the Republican legislators in the rest of state, are doing the best they can to block this. Their goal is to get concessions they want (regarding education funding) in exchange for letting us raise our own sales tax. They refer to it as the “Philadelphia bail-out bill.” Why they even have a say in the city sales tax is beyond me.

It’s quite frustrating once you realize the full extent of this–Philly (a Democratic city) is an economic engine in our state, yet somehow we operate at whim of (Republican) rural and suburban districts in the state legislature. For example, the state took over the Philadelphia Parking Authority in 2001. If you pay a ticket in Philly, the money goes to the state, not the city. Meanwhile Philly is characterized as a municipal welfare queen.

[By the way, Cory, I think your post is a bit premature. Our mayor and the state are basically playing chicken. The libraries just threw down their gauntlet against the state, sure to unleash a storm of protests.]

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By: Takuan http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587311 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587311 http://costofwar.com/

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By: Avram / Moderator http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587312 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587312 Some friends of mine who live in Philly point out that the city has a history of playing chicken with popular services when the state government is being stingy.

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By: Nollie http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-588336 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-588336 2 things –

This was posted by a local philly blog that has been covering the budget crisis:

http://www.philebrity.com/2009/09/10/readers-cameraphone-we-regret-to-inform-you-that-due-to-the-budget-crisis-in-harrisburg-the-city-can-no-longer-support-your-brain/

Also, the Philadelphia Free Library is supported by both city funding and private funding. It was once described to me by an employee as having an incestuous relationship with the city. The library can’t survive without city funding, but the library itself is actually in part a private organization. Kind of weird, right?

So that being said, if they have private funds (i.e. $ from the pew foundation and other local non-profits) why can’t some of those funds be used to keep at least the main branch open? The central library has a massive rare books section, is a local landmark and until recently there were plans to expand it:

http://libwww.freelibrary.org/expansion/expandDesign.cfm

Where is Pew in all of this? Where are the private funds and foundations? Basically, if they were really going to shut it down, i would have expected to hear at least something about the private face of the library or at least from some of its funders.

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By: TariAkpodiete http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587313 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587313 it’s CRIMINAL that this is happening. they could find NO solution? so now what are they going to do with the books, equipment, buildings and land? and what about all the librarians and library workers?

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By: sleze http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587569 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587569 This only has to do with budget. It’s not like Philadelphia hates libraries.

Libraries are going to be extinct in 20-30 years anyway.

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By: ianm http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587315 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587315 A wonderful paean Cory; a sublime lament. It’s extraordinarily disheartening news. The only hope remains that word of such a tragedy will invite the intercession of some higher power to intercede and save the day. The notion that such a system can simply go ‘offline’ almost overnight does not bode well. I hope your impassioned words can help in some small way to remedy the situation, they were certainly an eloquent eulogy.

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By: Anonymous http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587317 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587317 how is this happening? what is being done to stop this? what can i do to help??

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By: Antinous / Moderator http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587318 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587318 Here in California, Arnold has decided to scrap textbooks in favor of students doing all their reading electronically. It would probably work out just fine if every student had their own dedicated computer at home. But the overwhelming majority of students don’t.

Every time that I think that education can’t be de-prioritized any more, somebody proves me wrong.

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By: sleze http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587830 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587830 @59
“@Sleze – You have no idea what you’re talking about. Libraries are not going away any time soon, especially not in the next 20-30 years. ”

As soon as the contents of libraries are fully digitized (google is well on its way in doing that) and this ebook DRM crap is sorted out, the primary function of a library will be obsolete.

“I’m tired of people acting as if libraries aren’t relevant anymore because they themselves don’t go. That doesn’t mean that others don’t use them!”

I used libraries in school. I have never entered one again. I would bet that 90% of Americans fall in the same boat I do.

“Just because you aren’t on Medicare or don’t take advantage of disability benefits doesn’t mean that they aren’t beneficial and are going to die out. ”

Just because someone doesn’t use something, doesn’t mean they don’t see the use in it. Medicare serves a great purpose and the only thing I see that could possibly replace it would be absorbing it into a full universal health care system. But then, medicare is useful to everyone. Libraries are useful to researchers and students.

“Maybe you should try going to your local library sometime. You should walk through the childrens department and see all the kids learning to read”

…that’s what school libraries are for.

“and using computers that their parents can’t afford to have at home.”

…libraries are for loaning books, not public computer labs.

“You should try asking your librarian a question you think will stump them and see how quickly they come up with an answer or at least provide a source that could get you the answer.”

…there’s a guy who used to work at a used record store who could do the same thing with music. Now there’s an Iphone app that does it. Lexis Nexis and a host of computer apps search databases of texts and can do the same thing. Librarians are essentially experts at googling books.

“Hell, you can even rent DVDs there for free! Can you believe it?!?”

…great use of our public money.

“As a resident of Philly, I got my library card as soon as I could sign my name. I credit my local library for letting me choose my own adventures again and again. I can’t imagine Philly without its libraries. They’re too important to close! Even for one day!”

I am sorry you’ll miss it but don’t worry. It is a bluff.

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By: Anonymous http://boingboing.net/2009/09/13/philadelphia-free-li.html#comment-587321 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-587321 Here in Connecticut they’re shutting down the inter-library loan program :( — Not as bad as the situation in Philadelphia, but still deplorable.

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