Tuesday, December 28, 2004


Yahoo! News - Steinbeck's Hometown to Close Libraries
Facing record deficits, the City Council voted Dec. 14 to shut all three of Salinas' libraries, including the branches named after Steinbeck and labor leader Cesar Chavez. The blue-collar town of 150,000 could become the most populous U.S. city without a public library.

Salinas, nicknamed "salad bowl to the nation" for the lettuce and broccoli fields nearby, is the 1902 birthplace of the Nobel Prize-winning author of "Cannery Row" and "Of Mice and Men." Steinbeck, who died in 1968, described the region as "pastures of heaven" and memorialized Salinas in his 1952 novel "East of Eden."

But after voters Nov. 2 rejected a half-cent increase in the sales tax to preserve city services, Salinas has drawn the scorn of bibliophiles around the world. Editorials in newspapers from New Zealand to London have condemned the closings.

Here is the crux of the problem. Nobody wants to pay for the services they now take for granted. What kind of quality of life will we have in this country if this continues?

"The reality is that we live in a blue-collar community where people are struggling, and they're afraid of new taxes," Mayor Anna Caballero said. "I don't think they realized the enormity of what we were facing."

Libraries nationwide are struggling. According to an April study by the Chicago-based American Library Association, libraries in 41 states absorbed more than $50 million in funding cuts in the past year. More than 1,100 libraries have reduced operating hours or cut staff.

Some residents are hoping a private donor will rescue the library. Librarians are considering seeking corporate sponsorship.

Danger! Danger Will Robinson! Corporate sponsorship can lead to corporate censorship, better get some safeguards in place right now if you go down that road. Can you imagine WalMart sponsoring a library with their current store policies? *shudder*