Steinbeck's Hometown to Close Libraries

[Rose Siding]

snip>
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.

"It's embarrassing, not to mention inconvenient," said Ben Lopez, 69, a Salinas resident since 1945 who visits the Steinbeck branch at least twice a week. "Where else will I go to check out material -- Prunedale?" he said, referring to a relatively spartan branch of the Monterey County Free Libraries system.

Because of Salinas' large number of poor farmworkers and immigrants, the city's libraries are popular destinations for people seeking citizenship primers, literacy courses, English-as-a-second language tapes, Internet access and after-school programs. Roughly 1,900 people visit on an average day.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-salinas-libraries,0,7770568.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[MissBrooks]

1. Just horrible....

I can't believe this is happening.

[Rose Siding]

2. This event is like a mark on a dateline...

in a case study of a society's decline.

They aren't alone in their hardship...more>

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.

Because of cutbacks in state funding combined with rapid growth in Salinas and rising health care costs, the city cut $8 million from its budget in the last year and faces another $8 million reduction in its $60 million overall spending plan for the 2005-06 fiscal year.

All three library branches are set to close by May or June. Nearly three dozen employees will lose their jobs.

[Journeyman]

8. If it bothers you so much. . .

send them money to keep the libraries open.

This is amazing. "Worldwide scorn" from bibliophiles upset because field workers must choose to feed their bodies over their minds, yet nothing in the article about anyone organizing to help fund the library. Just vague hopes for a "white knight" savior.

The State of California is broke. Our last "white knight," der Gropernator himself, had only one less-than-brilliant idea for redeeming the State's coming financial ruin: We borrowed billions to pay off the excesses of the past, leaving us less than the nothing we had before for the future. So of course the libraries will close. As will the clinics and fire stations and the other "frivilous" services which people will just have to learn to live without.

[MissBrooks]

13. Salinas is not a poor neighborhood

What did they do with all their tax base?

Why should I give my $$ to them when developers are building million dollar homes down the street and are closing libraries around the corner.

I rather give my $$ to people who deserve it. Not people who already squandered all the $$ they have.

[Journeyman]

18. The per capita income in Salinas is less than $15,000 per annum. . .

You must know a different Salinas than the one I've driven through.

[Rose Siding]

22. Do those with the lower earnings...

enjoy the rights and privileges of citizenship?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

3. I studied Steinbeck at San Jose State with Dr. Susan Shillinglaw...

...Director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies, and one of the top Steinbeck scholars in the world.

http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/steinbec/srcinfo.html

It's a shame, but also a symptom of the times. My local library was forced to close on Mondays due to funding cuts, and that's just one straw in the haystack.

On the bright side, corporate CEOs haven't suffered a bit...as a matter of fact, they've prospered. Also, President Bush's $40 million coronation will go on as planned, January 20th.

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:



:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[LifeDuringWartime]

4. !

because they didnt want to pay half a cent more.

sounds like they wont care that the libraries close

[Journeyman]

6. The vast majority in Salinas pick lettuce for a living!

Just how much money do you think they have?

[mitchum]

16. And their children will most likely continue to pick lettuce...

without the resource of a library.
Journeyman, I understand what you are saying, but the short-sightedness of the citizens of Salinas will have terrible ramifications.

[Journeyman]

19. The per capita income in Salinas is less than $15,000 per annum. . .

kind of hard to maintain your "eye on the prize" when all that fills your thoughts is an empty stomach.

[ckramer]

5. What do you need library for when you've got Bible and church?

[IA_Seth]

7. And so it begins....

It seems that with budget cuts hitting many a medium sized town that services will have to be cut eventually...unfortunately academics will be the first to go.

This is terrible for a multitude of reasons, one of which is that now the people of Salinas will probably just rely on TV media for their information...and we all know how accurate that can be.

At least they are doing it subtely instead of throwing all the books onto a big ol bonfire, right?

[ZanZaBar]

10. indeed

"At least they are doing it subtely instead of throwing all the books onto a big ol bonfire, right?"


Ahhhh, those were the good ol days... :P

[KansDem]

9. As a librarian, I was particularly taken aback by this statement...

"Operating a library isn't as simple as selling cans of tomato soup at a retail store," said Jan Neal, administrative manager at the Steinbeck Library. "Do you think that the librarians who have worked here would stay around in hopes that the libraries would reopen someday? And what would you do about lapsed subscriptions to periodicals such as Congressional Quarterly?"

So true. City officials as was as the general citizenry, simply don't realize you can't cut a budget or close down a library with the promise or hope of reinstating services in a few years "after things get better." It doesn't work. Many subscriptions, such as CQ need to be received without interruption, as well as many titles or subjects that require constant updating of information. An increase in budget after several "lean" years might be good for the current year, but what many people don't realize is that money from that budget will also be required to fill in the gaps from previous years as well. So in essence, a budget greater than what is needed for the current year is necessary; a monumental feat.

This kind of mindset leads to huge gaps in the library's collection. Trying to play "catch up" with a library collection is NO WAY to operate a library...

[footinmouth]

11. It very nearly happened here too

I live in Erie County in Western New York. Our budget is a mess. If the budget (with the tax increases) didn't pass, all 52 libraries in the county were scheduled to be closed January 1, 2005. The tax increases passed so the libraries are spared for the moment. Lots of people of suing over the budget so we're not out of the woods yet. I'll keep you posted, but we could very well be next.

[WI_DEM]

12. A city with that many people without a library--this is outrageous!!

and is the governor to to try and do something? Where are these folks supposed to go to study or to get books they don't have to buy?

[IA_Seth]

14. Barnes & Noble will have lots of window shoppers! n/t

[JakeH]

15. If we all donated a little money to keep it open,

it might be able to operate. It worked in the last election.

[Judi Lynn]

17. According to a Reuters article, from Dec. 15, they have been steadily cut

and were operating prior to this vote at substandard levels:

The three Salinas libraries are mostly open only in the afternoons five days a week following earlier cutbacks.

The article was very unsympathetic, oddly. After we close all the libraries, what's left of the way of life we have known? What would our own towns be without libraries? What does this say if people believe we can do perfectly well reading only the books we can afford to buy? (Even if you are well fixed, your house has only so much room, after all!)

Dec. 15, 2004, 10:18PM

Author's hometown guts library funding
Budget woes close 3 facilities, including the Steinbeck branch
Reuters News Service


John Steinbeck had a rocky history with his hometown of Salinas.
SAN FRANCISCO - The central California town of Salinas, birthplace of Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck, who wrote The Grapes of Wrath, will close its three libraries next year as a cost-cutting move.

The Salinas City Council voted 6-1 late Tuesday to end funding of the libraries due to an $8 million city budget shortfall. The library doors, including the main John Steinbeck branch, will close during the first half of 2005.

"Unfortunately, part of the $8 million solution is the $3 million library program," Salinas City Manager David Mora said Wednesday.

"But in addition to the libraries, we are not hiring police officers, we are closing recreation centers, we are making further reductions in maintenance services," Mora said.

He blamed a continuing economic recession, voter rejection last month of a local half-cent sales tax increase and other factors for the city's economic woes.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2949542
(Free registration is required)

[othermeans]

20. Don't fret we've got 80 billion for Iraq. nt

[Moderator]

21. Moving

this story was discussed in Late Breaking News a couple of weeks ago.

[countryjake]

23. Both John & Cesar will be rolling in their graves!

Poverty is poverty, no matter who you are or where you live or what you believe in. Similar things are happening to libraries, schools, & worthy public programs, all over our country. The county I live in has charged 80 bucks a yr. for some time, to maintain a library card if you don't live within a town limits. It's no longer enough. Our library now may close, since the Nov. election. When bonds can't get passed, the public suffers. Libraries closing won't be felt by all, but fire stations, cop shops, high schools, & senior citizen's centers might make some impact. The town closest to me has just decided to try & maintain their police force on limited funds. A smaller town, upriver, has just closed down their small police force, deciding, instead, to pay the county sheriff for limited patrol up there. Another town's high school now has special-ed teachers trying to teach band & chorus, due to laying-off of qualified teachers. When will we notice that our quality of life is disintegrating?

We are fast sliding back towards the third-world.