Billionaire vs. New York City’s kids and libraries: E-book collection to suffer?
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who should know better, proposes a five percent cut in library financing for the city—with, says a New York Times writer, three percent further slashes “on the table.”
Nice going, Michael. Aren’t you the same self-made billionaire who in ‘04 was talking up the benefits of school libraries, at the very least? Remember the headline? “City to to Restore 25 libraries in schools by Fall 2006.” Now school kids will be among the New Yorkers paying for the mistakes of politicians and Wall Street Geckos that have reduced tax revenue.
So will the NYLP’s e-book and audiobook collection—which is open to out-of-towners who pay $100 fees for cards—suffer? And is it possible that wider use of E could help stretch library dollars?
Good case for P services, too
Regardless, the Times’ Susan Dominus makes a good case for not cutting back on paper books and other services, either, and avoiding shuts in library hours.
“For many middle-class New Yorkers,” she writes, “these kinds of pleasures are a big part of what the boom years have brought them: not second homes or personal Pilates instructors or Kelly bags, but urban utopian luxuries like fanciful playgrounds, open-air free movies and library services good enough to make them weekend highlights. All of those services, financed by tax dollars, have the added benefit of throwing people together, and none more effectively than libraries — free, local, with room to roam, they’re like parks with a brain, providing education brilliantly disguised as leisure, ideally on the weekends, when most people have time for it.”
Related: New York state’s new plans to tax etailers’ books. Talk about salt and wounds. Granted, NYC and the state are different. But imagine the message being sent here? Is New York aiming to be Mississippi?
More rants on the way, promise: Ok, Mike Cane. You reminded me of this. Your turn.
Popularity: 4% [?]
April 11th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Speaking of libraries, there are some interesting updates from the group that protested DRM in Boston libraries: http://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/1128
April 11th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Well, the politicians in NYC and many other places go through this dance every now and again. We’re going to slash libraries/after school programs/state parks (which is purposed right now in NJ) unless you give us (fill in the blank).
S.O.S.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Oh yes, they also proposed taxing your wages even if you worked the entire year in NJ because the company you work for was headquarted in NYC. Shot down. I bet the etailers tax will be shot down as well.
April 14th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Here it is the 14th and I only found out about this because it was an incoming link to my blog! This is how far underwater I am in things!
I wonder if this was the reason I saw some muckety-mucks visiting my local branch, which is (now, was?) due for a major overhaul and expansion? (In typical bureaucratic fashion, they screwed up the deal for the adjacent land, buying it at the peak of the Greed Boom! They could have had it earlier for far less.)
Fred: At one time they *did* tax my wages for NY when I lived in NJ. That got shot down after a few years. I’m surprised to hear they want to bring it back. I did do the “amazon tax” bill in a post:
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/04/12/my-state-is-run-by-corrupt-thieves/
I’ll do the NYPL soon.