By: Diane Benjamin
We may find out tonight at the Committee of the Whole meeting. The Library staff is making their presentation on how plans are going.
They should answer some questions first:
From the September 2014 City manager’s report: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=7452
2014 was down from 2013!
What about September of 2018?
The below is from the Library Board Packet for their meeting tomorrow: http://www.bloomingtonlibrary.org/Assets/files/bpl_board/boardpackets/2018/2018.10bplboardpacket.pdf
PDF page 12:
2014 items borrowed: 116,986
2018 items borrowed: 92,690
Decrease of 24,296
2014 door count: 31,976
2018 door count: 24,215
Decrease of 7,761
So why are they building?
Citizens who don’t demand it stop will be paying more in taxes!
Are you really going to let them do it?
What better way to insure that you will continue to have a job, than to come up with a taxpayer funded expansion of your facility? Unless you are living under a rock (except for you, Mayor Tari) you can see the writing on the wall for libraries. Anyone currently working at the library is NOT going to make it to their luxury retirement plan unless they are just a few years away from “cashing in their unused sick days” and retiring. They are working in the equivalent of a Block Buster Video store right now. They know it and they are scared to death.
Wow! Libraries are a dinosaur indeed. By my calculation, items borrowed are down about 21% and door count is down over 24% (2014-2018). So, the answer to this decline in demand and consumer interest is to build a new and bigger building?! If retail store sales and shoppers decline by this percentage would a private business build a new shop or expand its existing operations? Of course not! By the way, for those defenders of expanding the library under the mantra of “books are just the beginning” and its a “modern library” for meetings and gathers, note that the decline in door count is greater than the decline in items borrowed. So, I guess people aren’t interested in your programming after all.
Yes when you have your hand in the wallet of the taxpayers, you are exempt from the simple rules that govern for-profit businesses. “Books are just the beginning” is code for if you are against this you are against children and their education. “Modern Library” is code for installing computers and turning the library into a community indoctrination center for the poor people and their kids (storing dead tree books is just part of their mission now). Like the late George Carlin said… it’s all BS and it’s bad for you!