Late Report
Oct. 20th, 2004 08:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Written last night, but I couldn't get through to LJ to post.
I didn't have the energy to write about the meeting right after it occurred. This is my memory from a week later.
The Community Meeting for the East Lake closing was a disaster. It was not for input, rather it was to tell the community what had been decided for them. The Library Board is going to do what it pleases, no matter what the people they are supposed to be serving want them to do. Not only will they close the branch for nearly two years, but the new plan is absurd. Right now, there is a meeting room that accommodates around 80 people. It is free to community and non-profit groups during the hours the library is open. This room is heavily used, for everything from voting to tax preparation for seniors to story hours. The librarian at East Lake even said that 40 to 90 children show up for story hour each week. The new plan eliminates the meeting room. There will be a multi-purpose room off the children's area that will hold between 20 and 25 people. However, since it is next to the children's area, the events in meeting room have to put up with noise from children and might be more likely to be interrupted. There are other flaws with the new plan, but that is the one that stood out in my mind. Even worse was the attitude of "We told you this was going to happen, why didn’t you look “in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet in the cellar…" (Hitchhiker"s Guide to the Galaxy reference) I kept asking when and where they had told the neighborhood this was going to happen, and the Library Board kept saying they had informed people, and had input. Five people, to be exact, and I don't know how they were chosen. The planning committee for this was mostly people from the Library Board and Library Administration. And they certainly didn't ask for input from the actual patrons of the library. Because every single person who actually lives in the area, who I have asked, is opposed to closing East Lake for two years. I heard later that another person who made a number of comments against the plan was told that he should not have spoken as he did, i.e. against the plan.
I wish I had the energy to make it my mission to replace every one of them with a member of the community of library users, instead of a bunch of suburban political hacks.
I didn't have the energy to write about the meeting right after it occurred. This is my memory from a week later.
The Community Meeting for the East Lake closing was a disaster. It was not for input, rather it was to tell the community what had been decided for them. The Library Board is going to do what it pleases, no matter what the people they are supposed to be serving want them to do. Not only will they close the branch for nearly two years, but the new plan is absurd. Right now, there is a meeting room that accommodates around 80 people. It is free to community and non-profit groups during the hours the library is open. This room is heavily used, for everything from voting to tax preparation for seniors to story hours. The librarian at East Lake even said that 40 to 90 children show up for story hour each week. The new plan eliminates the meeting room. There will be a multi-purpose room off the children's area that will hold between 20 and 25 people. However, since it is next to the children's area, the events in meeting room have to put up with noise from children and might be more likely to be interrupted. There are other flaws with the new plan, but that is the one that stood out in my mind. Even worse was the attitude of "We told you this was going to happen, why didn’t you look “in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet in the cellar…" (Hitchhiker"s Guide to the Galaxy reference) I kept asking when and where they had told the neighborhood this was going to happen, and the Library Board kept saying they had informed people, and had input. Five people, to be exact, and I don't know how they were chosen. The planning committee for this was mostly people from the Library Board and Library Administration. And they certainly didn't ask for input from the actual patrons of the library. Because every single person who actually lives in the area, who I have asked, is opposed to closing East Lake for two years. I heard later that another person who made a number of comments against the plan was told that he should not have spoken as he did, i.e. against the plan.
I wish I had the energy to make it my mission to replace every one of them with a member of the community of library users, instead of a bunch of suburban political hacks.