Council Cuts Library Funding Despite Public Protest and Mayoral Veto

The Middletown Public Library has had its funding cut leaving the future of the library in question.   In a 7-1 vote to override the veto by the mayor, the city council voted to cut the library's $250,000 annual budget.  The library is expected to continue as a nonprofit entity.  Here's a random quote from the article:

"After a period of public comment, McNamara provided a rebuttal, saying the borough could not afford its previous $250,000 annual funding for the library because of a 2012 budget deficit.
“We’re not against the library, folks, but decisions have to be made and we don’t have time,” he said.
“We are here for the town and if we have to cut the budget and cut money so we don’t have another Harrisburg, we have to do it, and we were advised by professionals where we should do the cutting,” said Councilor Barbara Arnold, referencing recommendations by borough financial consultant Mark Morgan. “So we are doing what professionals told us to do.”

So basically, "we fucked up and you are going to have to pay with your children's and communities education."  One has to wonder what happened to this community that they need $250,000 right now rather than take cuts from other departments as a whole and, you know, act like a community that is in this together rather than acting like panicked twenty-year-olds deciding not to pay the Internet bill because they have a connection on their phone.  I hope the library can continue in this diminished capasity, but this may just be the death nail for this library.  Our thoughts are with the library and the community.

Council overrides mayor's veto, cuts library funding - Middletown Press and Journal

Fancy Pants News: These People Be On the Nets for Books and Libraries

So I been ill for a day or so,
so I'll try to be funny all in one go.
Not trying to rhyme,
not all the time.
This is breaking down.
I feel like a clown.
So here's the news, this time I mean it.
Anybody got a peanut?

Singer lady Taylor Swift donated over 6,000 books to- I'ma let you finish I just need a cheap cameo.  Whine, whine, who's got wine?- the city of Reading, PA. cbsnews

A homeless man in the Evanston Public Library threw a chair through a wall after over a banning dispute for behavior. That'll fix it, hombre. Patch

Librarians turned defacement into an art show when play-write Joe Orton's artistic vandalism of library books was put on display.  Well, way to fix the problem.  Got a crazy notion to write your memoirs in library book bindings?  Hey, we may publish that. Guardian

Pace University has commented on shutting down the Henry Birnbaum Library due to bedbugs, saying, "Yep, we got bedbugs." gothamist

Self-published wunderkind author Amanda Hocking is moving into the world of graphic novels with Dynamite Entertainment.  Write on, ya crazy kid!  PublishersWeekly

Children's book illustrator Sophie Blackall has created a book based on Craigslist's "Missed Connections" section.  "You were in red, I had a gimp mask on.  We were on the subway and you really creeped me out by asking if I wanted to pose nude for the delight of children.  I still do." NYDailyNews

Toronto library staff have proposed to cut staff and hours in an effort to appease Mayor Rob Ford's requests that budgets be trimmed.  Next, Toronto police will buy their own bullets and gas and teachers will... hell, teachers got nothing either.  citytv

Longmont Library Budgeting for Bedbugs: An Alliteration

After upholstered library benches became breading sites for bedbugs, the Longmont Library in Colorado has had enough with comfortable seating.  The library plans to budget $5,000 for wooden benches this year and more money down the line.  TimesCall

You know what we did back in my day when bedbugs came after us?  Wicker.  And I do not mean that goofy furniture stuff you get from IKEA or whatever.  I mean as in Wicker Man, the original, non-bee style.  Burn that mother down, smiting all the godless bugs back to the hell from which they sprang.

Volunteers Running the Asylum: Santa Cruz Staffing Solution

Santa Cruz, CA's ten branches got a bit of a shake up this week when it was announced the new fiscally responsible way to run a library is without librarians.  A new plan, to be voted on April 4, would have the ten branches of the library system stay open with increased hours but dependent on volunteers to staff.  Reference help and other "library" related activities would be remanded to online and telephone help.  In a quote to Library Journal, director Teresa Landers had this to say:

"The public's going to have to choose," Landers told LJ. "They can't have it all. What we 
heard is, 'we want the doors open.' That's what we're giving them."


Snap!  Take that, public!  I am not sure how she meant that to come out, but that's all the context you get.  I see this as the seen from Network:  Her standing on the Circ Desk, pounding her leg with a copy of the Statistical Abstract, yelling, "I'm mad as hell and... where the hell is everybody?"  Then three "volunteers" come along and haul her away of the computer lab before the Facebook zombies wake up and demand a Starbucks in the lobby.


Also, just a note:  "Santa Cruz" sounds like somewhere Kris Kringle goes to pick up chicks.  Just sayin.