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You missed my most important part of the post. I already pay a Library tax. Will you use any new Meeting Rooms in any Library? If they were talking about money for books or something everyone uses (and what libraries are for), I wouldn't be so diehard against it. If my company or one of the groups I'm with needs a meeting room, we use a Church, Community Center or Hotel. The Library is going in the wrong direction of why they need more money. Can someone explain with all the other places why we need meeting rooms in a library?
Someone else outside the board gave me an answer to this and I'll share it. They said, "Libraries are on the verge of extinction. They will do whatever they can by diversifying to survive. The more money they can get committed to them now, won't be able to be taken away later."
Last edited by LeaveItUpToUs; 10-05-2013 at 07:38 AM..
Reason: Added Info
I could see only maybe 10 percent of books in a library being checked out on a regular basis. 40 percent or so of the books probably haven't been checked out once in years.
So even the argument we need libraries for the books is on shakey ground. Given you get used books for discounts on amazon or elsewhere, libraries really should be extinct.
I could see only maybe 10 percent of books in a library being checked out on a regular basis. 40 percent or so of the books probably haven't been checked out once in years.
So even the argument we need libraries for the books is on shakey ground. Given you get used books for discounts on amazon or elsewhere, libraries really should be extinct.
Your made up statistics are meaningless. Lets take a look at some actual numbers.
-206,000 people have library cards for Richland Library.
-8,000 people are served in some way at the library each day. This number has increased 20% since 2009.
-Circulation (number of items checked out) is up 38% over the since 2009
-5.2 million items are checked out in a year
-4,600 programs and event held at the library in 2012 attracting 84,000 people
-56% increase in meeting room use in the last year
I know these numbers will mean little to most people here who don't see the library as providing any benefit to the community. It should show that even if you don't use the library and its many services a lot of people do and that usage is increasing not decreasing.
Your made up statistics are meaningless. Lets take a look at some actual numbers.
-206,000 people have library cards for Richland Library.
-8,000 people are served in some way at the library each day. This number has increased 20% since 2009.
-Circulation (number of items checked out) is up 38% over the since 2009
-5.2 million items are checked out in a year
-4,600 programs and event held at the library in 2012 attracting 84,000 people
-56% increase in meeting room use in the last year
I know these numbers will mean little to most people here who don't see the library as providing any benefit to the community. It should show that even if you don't use the library and its many services a lot of people do and that usage is increasing not decreasing.
it could be a benefit to the community, like a Redbox, without taxpayers paying for it and users paying for it. this isn't mutually exclusive. LOL
Use of libraries has obviously declined significantly in the last 20 years in the era of internet and the new ebook technology like Kindle. I don't think it is a necessary role of the government to fund libraries so there is nothing wrong with us re-visiting how we fund them time to time.
Libaries really should go to a Netflix or Redbox like the video stores did, adapt to the changing market.
it could be a benefit to the community, like a Redbox, without taxpayers paying for it and users paying for it. this isn't mutually exclusive. LOL
Use of libraries has obviously declined significantly in the last 20 years in the era of internet and the new ebook technology like Kindle. I don't think it is a necessary role of the government to fund libraries so there is nothing wrong with us re-visiting how we fund them time to time.
Libaries really should go to a Netflix or Redbox like the video stores did, adapt to the changing market.
Use is obviously NOT declining. You didn't read the other post.
it is declining, it has declined big time since 1990 or so. He's using a stat trick, showing an increase from one year to the next which doesn't show the overall downward trend. this is kind of similar to the hockey stick trick libs use in the global warming alarmism.
I think we are the point where users should have to fund any more books and meeting space stuff. We got you most of the way there.
Now someone is in here talking about privatizing libraries? Of course, free access to knowledge is a terrible thing for society and it should be stopped. I'm voting for this tax purely out of spite now.
Kevin fisher speaks up/ to rally the no vote to library tax lunacy
Also mentions something many have not mentioned here on the pro side. Richland's library system wants to add a new library which will spread their overall budget thinner. And a reminder of the fact that a yes vote entails borrowing 59 million which will be zapped from Richland homeowners pockets in perpetuity in future prop tax payments.
"Finally, while I know many citizens will support the Richland Library bond referendum because they are good-hearted and feel they should, common sense says the plan to borrow $59 million (which is paid back through increased property taxes) is unwise and unnecessary. We now live in a very different information world, one in which the use and usefulness of brick-and-mortar libraries has been reduced. Almost everyone now has on their desk, on their lap or in their pocket the connection to virtually all available information. Make no mistake, our libraries can and should provide access to that information to anyone who needs it. But the existing facilities should be strengthened, rather than expensive new ones added as the plan calls for."
Forgive my ignorance, but first mayoral vote in this ghetto cesspool. What areas vote for Mayor? Would residents of NE Richland, for instance, only be voting on this butt rape referendum?
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Ya usage is declining/ this is not arguable
