Chicago Public Library Locations Will Now Be Closed On Mondays

Too bad we don't treasure our libraries as much as we treasure our welfare queen, profit rich CME/CBOT.

In this letter, CPL's Mary Dempsey lines out clearly and simply how important libraries are to the city, and completely obliterates a Fox Chicago "news" story about whether libraries are needed or not:

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dp...

Because of all the books I have read (from the public library), I don't believe in all the Mayan 2012 BS, but this is definitely a sign of our society (and city) going in the shitter. Forget being open 6 days, they should be open 7. argh.

And, that value is also reflected in property values for people lucky enough to live close to a library facility, for those people that only care about money. Move next to a library and your house will be worth more and easier to sell (generally speaking).

It is kind of shocking to me how much libraries are misunderstood. The comments from Chytowns and Batman are perfect examples. I volunteer at a branch of the Chicago Public Library. I am there every week seeing what is happening inside of that branch. I see how much the community uses the library. I see how library use has boomed over the past few years. . Nearly nine million items were borrowed at CPL last year - you can no one be using the library when nine million books, cds, and dvds were taken out. There were more than 2.5 million computer sessions at CPL last year. These are not the statistics reflecting the usage of "very few members of society."

Libraries provide support functions for most of the causes batman refers to. Homeless people use the library to stay warm or cool depending on the weather (many shelters aren't open 24/7 and many homeless people don't trust shelters). They also read books, magazine, and newspapers when at the library.  Job seekers use the library to apply for jobs, search for employment, and study to try to prepare themselves for better employment opportunities or career changes. I see people studying for tests ranging from the GDE to the MCAT and the Bar Exam. (And while some people like to study at Starbucks, Starbucks is a very different atmosphere than a library and they don;t have books or research databases. Starbucks is not an appropriate substitute for a public library.)

The public library is a supplement to schools. Many schools do not have libraries, so they take their classes to the closet public library. Also, the public library is a safe place for kids to go after school. I see kids studying, doing homework, and using the computers.  I see kids getting tutored by volunteers like Big Brothers/Big Sisters.  Kids doing better at school and staying off the streets helps create a safe and healthier city and safer and healthier kids. Libraries help give kids a better chance of doing well in school and in life.

Regardless of age, many people cannot afford to buy books, subscribe to netflix, or have internet services. The library provides access to books, movies, newspapers, audiobooks, movies, documentaries, expensive research materials, etc. Not everyone has a computer, not everyone has the internet. At the library anyone with a library card can have access to both. Also, not everything is on the internet. There are many resources that are only available at the library or are only available as part of subscription research databases.  I think it is important to note that the library not only offers resources, the library offers expertise. The library I volunteer at has a person who is there specifically to help people learn how to use computers. Many adults never learned how to use computers or the internet. Setting up an e-mail account is bewildering to them, and she is there to guide them through that. Librarians have Masters Degrees - they went to graduate school. They are experts in finding things to put it in the most basic terms.

The library is a place of opportunity. It provides resources and materials to help educate the citizens of this city. As for the idea that "media access" is not a right and that government shouldnot be providing it,  Ben Franklin (among other founding fathers) may have disagreed with you. In 1731 (before there even was a US government), Franklin founded the first lending library in the US open to all people (The Library Company of Philadelphia), which was the precursor to the public library. "Media access" is essential to learning, and an educated citizenry is essential to a healthy democracy.

Very well said. Anyone that does an honest cost-benefit analysis of the situation will see that libraries' value to a community far exceeds their cost.

I am not outraged, but I wish we didn't have them.

I like librarians, they don't shush me often, they seem nice, and I wish that they had good employement; I like the IDEA of a library, but I don't use it and I think that most people don't use them except as polling places. Convenient physical libraries are holdovers from a bygone era. The function of lending out media can be done on amazon/netflix/bookswim much more quickly and cheaply. If people need a place to sit and read or study, Starbucks has 250thousand locations in the city, and is open later than the library. So I think public libraries should be almost completely cut. They may provide a media access point of last resort for very few members of society at the bottom of the economic scale, but media access is not a RIGHT, and government has no business providing it.

If we really need public libraries, then the city can merge the function of a public library with a publicly funded college (like the CCC) that already has a library, already has physical sites and is willing to continue to deal with actual books.

When every person can afford an eBook reader, we will no longer need a library. You're right. The library system is headed the way of the print book. But we're not there yet. Not even close.

BTW, I went to borrow an eBook from CPL for my Kindle a month ago. I'm still waitlisted for it. But should I desire, I can put up the print book from any number of branches.

One of the cool things about the internet is that you can have a strong opinion on a subject you don't know one goddamn thing about.

You are so misinformed about the role of public libraries and the role they serve in the community. The library is FREE and provides people of all incomes with the opportunity to borrow books and media to be educated, informed and entertained and to be productive members of society. They serve as community centers where people can meet freely, face to face without requiring an admission fee, in the form of a ticket or a purchase, and without being bombarded by advertising or a commercial agenda. Libraries support an educated society. If you want to see a library used by the community, go to the Lincoln Belmont library on any day between 3-5 pm. Sometimes there is a line for people waiting to get into the libraries when they open.

"Libraries support an educated society."

That's a good way to put it. I think one of the challenges that libraries face (beyond the ones mentioned above) is that many citizens simply don't know what's available at the library - it's not just books. It's movies, magazine archives, historical records, educational material, lectures, access to the Internet, community meeting space, etc.  And it's all free. 

Although I visit the HWLC maybe once a month (at most), when I was young, I would go to my town library in NJ practically every week (I was a voracious reader back then).  My town library played a central role in building my love of learning, which continues today.

In this economic climate, it's reasonable for most government functions to be scaled back to some degree - but to say that we'd be much better off spending the entire $106m library budget on other things is incorrect. Free lending libraries provide a tremendous value to society.

The CPL budget was cut from $106 million to $87.5 million. Here's a list of things we could do with $106 million

1. Solve homelessness. There are about 7,000 homeless people in the city right now. It costs about $22 per person per day to feed and shelter them. Food and shelter could be given to every single one of these people for $56 million (7,000 * 365 * $22).
2. Hire 2,095 additional public school teachers, cutting the CPS student to teacher ratio from 22:1 to 17.5:1.
3. Hire 1,646 seasoned cops.
4. Cut a check to everyone in Chicago for about $40 every year.
5. Completely pay for a public event on the scale of the Summer Olympics bid (~$4.8B) once every 32 years (assuming the city invested the money and received the historical inflation adjusted return of the stock market, 1.9%).
6. Build a new Millenium Park every 3.5 years. 

Everyone is outraged about the cuts, but where is the outrage over getting so little for so much?

I will tell you that at this very moment I have more than my $40 worth of library services. Four hardcover books that I am reading and will return. If you are not able to get ROI from the public library, that's your problem.

It's good to hear that the city has solved all the major problems so that it has enough resources free to subsidize your upper middle class tastes. 

Actually, your $40 figure was wrong because I pay more in taxes than most. Upper middle class = buy more stuff, more expensive house. Thus, likely no subsidy. But that's really a quibble.

Idiot.

Ahahaha

you seem to not understand that the people that use and need the library system the most are the poor or lower middle class, or currently unemployed. It is literally a lifesaver for some of these people.

That doesn't mean that middle class or upper middle class or even the rich shouldn't take advantage either. The library is one of those resources that people from all across the economic spectrum can use for their benefit.

Hating on the library system is so short-sighted and narrow-minded. If you think you don't get enough for your $40 a year, than you should use the library more.

Hell no, no labor concessions.  In a recession with such horrible unemployment, locations should be open 7 days a week as much as possible.  These are job centers, people.

Fucking sad.