Mobile Public Library Budget Cuts Put the Brakes on Bookmobile

"A cut in operational hours and personnel handling the bookmobile are two possibilities from the recent cut in the Mobile Public Library's budget.
The latest cut came from the city's 2013 budget, which slashed its annual appropriation to the library by 1.1 percent from $6.6 million in 2012 to $6.5 million next year."

Somewhere in Alabama, a librarian is looking longingly at her driving gloves.  She thinks about pulling those little pieces of leather on one more time, taking out the bookmobile for one last hoorah before she is put down all together.  She looks out the window and sighs, thinking of all the little country children who would squeal in delight as she honked the horn coming around the corner.  The bookmobile librarian, the outreach of the most out reaching librarian, is no more.  Remember her.

Where do bookmobile librarians go when they are put out to pasture?  Is there a farm? 

Mobile Public Library looks at cutting hours, bookmobile amid budget cuts - al.com (blog)

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