In December, Amazon.com sold more e-books than it did paper books for the first time. By February, the nationwide Borders book chain was in bankruptcy. The well-intentioned people desperately trying to save Charlotte’s libraries should take note of that.
I’m a voracious reader, and I’d still be reading paperbacks had my husband not bought me the Kindle I’m too cheap to have gone out and bought for myself. I was skeptical, but after my first e-book, I was hooked. It’s an indescribably different experience — and a much-improved one — than reading a paperback.
My Kindle doubles as a dictionary, immediately giving me the meaning of any word I click on. Forget who a minor character is? No need to spend 20 minutes leafing through pages to find the first reference. And I can download a new book the minute it comes out in bed in my pajamas.
I haven’t read a paperback since I got it. It would be like going back to cassette tape after burning your first CD. Who does that? Not many people, apparently. According to the Wall Street Journal, e-books went from .6 percent of the book market in 2007 to 10 percent last year and are expected to hit 15 percent this year.
The e-book craze will wipe out 90 percent of bookstores in a decade, the Journal forecasts. This message has apparently not hit home with the people trying to save our financially struggling libraries here in Mecklenburg County, but it’s one being asked in a serious way in even broker places like Illinois, where Fox Chicago News recently questioned whether the state needed all of its 799 library branches, or even half of them. It’s a question we should be asking here, where it costs roughly $40 million a year to keep the library system running. After cuts, a whopping 20 branches remain open in Mecklenburg.
(Editor’s Note — April 27, 2011: According to cmlibrary.org, the FY 2009-10 Library budget, which began July 1, 2009, was approximately $35,372,946 with over $31.7 million of that amount coming from Mecklenburg County. In March 2010, the library received a $2 million reduction in FY 2009-2010 funding from Mecklenburg County. The FY 2011 Library budget, however, which began July 1, 2010, is approximately $25 million with $23.3 million of that coming from municipalities: $21.17 million from Mecklenburg County, $1.4 million from the City of Charlotte, and $730,000 five towns in Mecklenburg County.)
That $40 million would go a long way to filling the school budget gap. It is also very close to the amount of the tax increase that county commissioners are eyeing, a tax increase that will be a gut punch to a county that still has more than 30,000 fewer jobs than it did before the recession.
I visit libraries almost weekly, mostly for the children’s activity classes held there by various groups around town. I still check out kid’s books occasionally, but that’s about it.
The main library is almost always buzzing with a respectable guest count — at the free Internet access computer terminals. I approach the book aisles in much the same way I would the alleys behind Uptown bars after midnight. I’m no longer convinced it’s safe for a lone female to browse them alone since they are practically deserted and present a great opportunity for ambush.
Libraries date back to almost 2,000 B.C., and they still serve some of the same useful functions now that they did then — like archiving an area’s priceless local history the way our main library’s Carolina Room does. No way I’m willing to part with the microfilm of the Charlotte News from 1900 or centuries worth of priceless pictures and documents. We ought to keep at least one branch open for that and maybe a few more to house a copy of in-demand books. It would be much cheaper to offer public computer access in a large, vacant, big-box space in a strip mall somewhere that’s centrally located.
The county library system should have no more than five branches tops a decade from now, including the computer farm. Libraries across the country are beginning to confront this reality, with 66 percent of them offering some form of e-books in an attempt to justify their existence.
Given that the bill for leaving the system as it is for the next decade comes to whopping $400 million, we should pause and ask ourselves whether all of this is really necessary.
This article appears in Apr 26 – May 2, 2011.
Good points. I think Charlotte will be forced into this direction in a few years.
We’re just not there yet.
Perhaps the next big step as the libraries switch over to digital would be to contain all the library books in a solitary giant warehouse that would serve as the county’s single physical browsing center for all of the paper volumes. We could have small, automated media reserve stations spread across the county, in replacement of the multitude of branches.
Eventually, the library system should digitize all the old editions of books out print, since many are likely to never be put back into publication and will fall apart sooner or later.
This needs to happen before shutting down the current book system. It would be a profound loss of knowledge otherwise.
Tara, I hope, in the future, when your kids you currently take to the library are grown and live in a country over-run by idiots, where only people who can afford a Kindle have access to books or the ability to self-educate themselves of lift themselves up out of their situations, you remember this article. Because your kids aren’t going to thank you for it. Most of your articles are insightful and intelligent. I hate to have read one so short-sighted, intellectually limited and based solely on your own rather selfish middle-class needs. Leave no child behind? Screw ’em, if they can’t afford a Kindle. Nicely done.
For an op-ed, it’s full on opinion. The Library system (according to public record) does not now, and has never, cost $40M to run -or roughly $40M as you put it.
And just because you have access to a Kindle & subscription internet doesn’t mean that all have access to both.
Library usage has gone up, year and after year, http://www.oclc.org/reports/stackup/default.htm while funding has gone down because of misinformation like this op-ed.
Oh my…you have quite an assumption in your argument whether you realize it or not. Not everyone can afford what you can. Libraries serve everyone – especially those who can’t afford to buy all the books they want and need. What will happen to them? School libraries close with the school in the afternoon. Where will the kids who don’t have a computer at home or a shelf of reference books go for help with homework? Where will the unemployed in your community go for help in job searching and for classes on how to write a resume – or even how to use the computer so they can apply for jobs??
The whole premise of a public library is to educate citizens so they can participate in our democracy. They are a great equalizer. I would encourage you to maybe actually talk to someone at the library about their circulation statistics (how many books are checked out) and their door counts. Because Charlotte has an amazing library system that is heavily used. Just because you don’t see people in the stacks when you’re there doesn’t mean they’re never there.
I agree. The only people who should have access to information are people who can afford Kindles. Libraries don’t exist to provide access to information to poor people just so they can try to self-educate themselves out of their situation. Citizen Servatius nails it again! A citizen of one!
I didn’t realize you hailed from Versailles, Tara. Glad to know you’re looking out for your citizenry. “Let them read Kindles!”
Kindles do not provide assistance to students with their homework nor do they provide assistance to job seekers who are required to apply for a job online, yet have never used a computer.
Mecklenburg County has a huge need to get people back to work and the libraries are crucial in this effort which will ultimately have a positive impact on the community.
Additionally not everyone can afford a Kindle, nor to purchase the books to download to one.
Tara, since you are keen to the economics of keeping them open, how about realize the economics that they deliver. Every dollar invested in the library bring back over $4.50 to our community. That is a 450% investment – you can’t get that on Wall Street.
Libraries serve our community in many ways besides being a repository for books. This piece fails to note any of them, outside of some fear-mongering about computer use at Main Library.
Libraries offer programming for adults and children. They serve as community meeting spaces. They provide a safety net for those who cannot afford home computers or Kindles. Our public libraries are striving to meet the challenges of the new reality of e-books by offering e-books for check out, just as libraries adapted to challenges to their niche by home computers and the internet.
Libraries in five years may not look the same as today, but they will continue to adapt, thrive and offer information to all citizens.
Tara, with all due respect, your facts are incorrect. I work for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, and the library’s budget isn’t $40 million.
Never has been.
Mecklenburg County invested $21 million in libraries in FY11. That’s significantly less than the $40 million you claim “would go a long way toward filling the school budget gap.”
And in the spirit of transparency, here’s the complete budget breakdown, which is available on our web site, cmlibrary.org. The FY 2011 Library Budget is approximately $25 million, with $23.3 million of that coming from municipalities: $21.17 million from Mecklenburg County, $1.4 million from the City of Charlotte, and $730,000 from the five towns in Mecklenburg County. The rest comes from non-taxpayer funding.
Libraries are an investment that pays off. According to a recent UNCC Urban Institute report, for every $1 invested, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library returns $4.57 in direct benefits to the community. Not many investments are currently yielding that level of return in this economy.
I do respect the fact that you’ve brought up an interesting dialogue about the future of libraries. Indeed, the library of the future certainly won’t look exactly like the library of today, just as today’s library doesn’t look like the library of 1903. But while may change and evolve, communities do still need libraries for one key reason you didn’t mention: Our services remain free and open to all.
You don’t have to buy a Kindle.
You don’t have to pay a fee.
You simply have to come to us with a desire to learn.
Sarah Goldstein
It bothers me how close to Farhenhit 451 society has become. I hate how dependant people have become on digital things. Most people seem to forget that if the system that is holding all of this information crashes what are we left with? What happens when man can’t access the Internet? Who will pick of the strains of education if it’s all on file and that file is gone? I feel like the current situation is killing free education.
Apparently you overlooked the programming, free internet and other services and community functions that having libraries in communities do provide. If you were just one sided on books…perhaps, but maybe you should try looking at the whole picture rather than just one point. Libraries will change in the future and there will be less books, but the need for a resource of information or even someone to guide you through all overwhelming informaiton that is out there will be needed.
Enjoy waiting for your turn at one of your five libraries.
As a middle class hipster with a kindle, I’m sure you don’t think there’s a need for libraries, just like people with secure jobs have no need for welfare.
Libraries are a safety net. They provide Internet access, skills training, and entertainment to people who can’t afford to get these things any other way. The fact that a rent-a-dumb-opinion working for a free paper makes enough money not to need library services doesn’t mean that everyone else caught up in this recession is as fortunate.
Don’t like libraries? Fine. Don’t go to one. Don’t disrespect the fine work that librarians do and the essential service they provide just because you’re fortunate enough to be able to buy the latest silly gadget.
This article is the worst example of “let them eat cake” naivety I’ve seen in a long time.
She means, of course, that technology has changed her reading habits. Her view is typical of many journalists and politicians now commenting on public libraries: comfortably off, with internet access, Kindles, iPads and Amazon accounts, they have no need to use their local libraries, and have little idea how much goes on in them. Yet they advocate, as this lady does, that “some things have to go” and point to libraries.Last Monday, almost 500 people visited my local library. Few could afford a Kindle but they borrowed plenty of books. One pensioner paid a small fee for an inter-library loan to obtain two out-of-print books – neither available for download. It is not “an era of universal broadband”, as this lady suggests…PLEASE GET A REALITY CHECK.
If you buy a Nook, you can take out library books. I love mine, and our library is always short of available books because they are so popular.
First of all as a Charlotte Mecklenburg Library employee I am angered by your article. The library offers more than just paperback books. We offer computer access, computer classes, help with resumes and job searching, book clubs, TONS of kids and teen programs, summer reading programs for all ages, of course books, and now even ebooks you can check out for almost every eReader – including the Kindle. Also, not everyone can afford a computer, internet access, or a Kindle. A lot of the people I help every day are using the library to have internet access to search for jobs. If you lose your job even if you have a computer at home one of the first “luxuries” you might cut would be internet access.
I also don’t appreciate the comparison of browsing the book aisles to going into “the alleys behind Uptown bars after midnight.” All of our branches don’t have security officers on site, but Main definitely does and having worked at 6 locations I’ve never felt unsafe in any library building. I would hardly think that what goes on in any of our library branches could be compared to what might happen in a dark alley after midnight.
We see a fair amount of people like you, especially in the more affluent communities, who only use the library for their kids, or only come in if your printer at home runs out of ink, or come in asking about whether we offer downloadable books for their Kindles. But, mostly we are helping people who truly cannot afford those luxuries.
ANickerson
This is just the comment I would expect from a white, upwardly mobile, young professional. The fact that you admit you were a paperback addict indicates that you also belong to the own it, use it, and get rid of it crowd. Not everyone has the ability to purchase books at will and not everyone has access to their own computer whenever needed. Those same people do not have transportation or funds to get to a “centrally located big box computer center”. Neighborhood centers are critically needed resources for those citizens of our county. Perhaps you have forgotten that Jesus said “We will always have the poor among us.” Mt 26:11. I hope that you at least donate your no longer used paperbacks to a library!
As a librarian – not with the Charlotte library – I find this article sad. Yes, I know many people feel this way, but those are people who do not NEED the public library. Every day when my library’s doors open there is a rush to get in. People come to us for the newspaper, to check stock reports from Value Line, S & P, and Moodys. They come for tax forms, for computer access, and faxing. I’ve helped teenagers in tears because they just logged out of a computer without saving their term paper & managed to recover the paper for them.
And yes, people still come for the books. My library’s circulation stats are through the roof, we field calls on a daily basis for material requests, if we don’t have the book we’ll find someone who does. Want an e-book? We help you get it.
Ms. Servatius, you may not need the library, but I can assure you the community certainly does.
It is amazing how off this author was on the library’s budget – especially considering she used it as a backbone of her argument – when all she’d have had to do to make sure her numbers were correct were visit the library’s website and look up its budget information. But I guess 25 million a year wouldn’t make her 400 million dollar sum at the end seem quite as plausible. It is bad enough that Mecklenburg County seems to be going backwards, culturally, but it is even worse when our pundits and journalists don’t even know how to do basic research with the VERY TECHNOLOGY they expect to replace the library. Or maybe Tara just isn’t quite rich enough yet to afford a Kindle that can browse the Internet, too. Tara, the library offers free classes to people who are trying to familiarize themselves with doing online research and using the Internet. Perhaps you should sign up for one of those courses?
One more issue she writes about that, in my opinion, betrays her utter lack of intellectual curiosity is the fact that she considers it frustrating to have to go back and reread some pages if she forgets who a character is in something she’s reading. First of all, if she’s an adult and faces this problem, either she’s suffering from early dementia or she really never properly learned how to read. Maybe she learned how to decipher sentences, but she didn’t learn the nuances of reading, which leads me to believe she’s a casual reader, at best, and therefore has no business trying to dictate the future of libraries. But more importantly, it has been proven time and again scientifically that part of the reason READING INCREASES NEURAL ACTIVITY is exactly BECAUSE of facing challenges like that, and because you have to train your brain to read properly, and accurately. Those connections between neurons don’t get made when you can just click on something to get an electronic reminder.
I used to love Creative Loafing but it has been gradually been dumbing down over the last few years. I used to even like Tara’s articles, even when I disagreed with her on principle. But even she has seemed to be phoning it in lately. This is too much, though. This “Let them eat Kindles” and glorification of stupidity over serious lifelong learning just seems beyond even her, and if this is the new normal for Creative Loafing, this is the last time I’ll ever pick up this rag or read it. Tara, you didn’t just lose a reader here, you lost your whole magazine a reader.
Oh, and the library even has a ready-reference service where you can just call them or email them if you have reference questions or are confused about a bit of information. You might try using that service, at least, if you’re too professionally lazy to read a website, the next time you want to write about the library’s budget. Heck, maybe you should use that service any time you want to write about a county agency’s budget, because if this article is any indication, you seem to just pick numbers out of the air and run with them. (The library’s budget has NEVER been 40 million, as one of their employees mentions in these comments, AND I’d LOVE to know what critical skills you put to use to decide that there should be “five libraries, tops” in the next ten years. I’m sure a lot of people, even county government, would like to know what braintrust came up with that number. I mean, it sounds like you’ve got it all figured out… even if you are making half of it up!
Sadder than the news about the library and the article in general is the way this opinion piece perfectly exemplifies why American journalism is dying even faster than libraries.
Ta,
Major
I guess Ms. Servatius is affluent enough to afford a kindle, ipad, car, and computer at home, which of course means she has no need for the libraries services.Worried about the dark alleys in the library. Are you also afraid of your own shadow. I have never felt afraid to walk the aisles. I call the library my Cheers, cause everybody knows my name. Did you know readership was up during the great depression? That readership has been up during this depression. Why.? People need the libraries. What about the book sale the Friends of the library is holding. Where are those books coming from. And dont you think the ones given will be bought. Yes they will. And what about the physically and mentally handicapable. Gonna make them travel longer on buses all over town. Computers to search for jobs or keep in touch with long distance family. Book clubs.Childrens and teen programs. A safe place for them to come and have fun. All the technology tends to isolate people from the world. And I believe Ms. Servatius you are one of them and you are bringing your children along with you. We should pity you.
BW1001 and frankgriffin —
You might want to read the report and recommendations of the Task Force on the Future of the Library. This group of Mecklenburg County citizens (NONE of whom work for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library) worked tirelessly for months to study the library. The information they put together tells a very compelling story about just how important libraries are to the citizens of Mecklenburg County.
As a librarian (at an academic library, not a public library), I am a little biased about the value of libraries, and others have already capably argued that point. I would add, for some of the non-librarians out there, that not all books can be digitized and made available to everyone everywhere right now, thus eliminating the need for libraries (even if libraries only existed to lend books, which is not the case.) Copyright, intellectual property, license agreements–you may have heard of them. Google has become acutely aware of them lately:
http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/
I am also wondering if the author is unaware that libraries do in fact lend e-books, soon to include Kindle books in addition to books for other platforms (like Nook,) which are already doing business with libraries:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/amazon-to-introduce-library-lending-for-kindle/31012
I don’t recall the Creative Loafing doing any serious investigative reporting on the state of the Library. And then the editor allows this toilet paper to be pawned off as a good opinion piece.
The fact that you allowed a column wrought with so many factual errors out of your newsroom does not bode too well for journalistic integrity. When I was in J-School, errors like Tara’s would have counted 50 points off because they were not factual in a major way. Columnists are certainly entitled to their own opinions. But they are never entitled to their own facts. Tara should be held accountable for misrepresenting such a big issue in this community. CL should hold itself accountable for not making it a concern of its newsroom to reach out to Library Staff, the Friends of the Library and the Future of the Library Task Force.
Personally I am disappointed at your disservice to journalism and this county.
People also predicted the demise of brick and mortar stores when computers took off in the 90s. But go to any shopping center on the weekend and the lot is full. There are still many brick and mortars still standing and doing enough business to remain open. Same goes for bookstores and libraries. People may use them less but not to the point of extinction. The library and bookstore may become smaller and/or more specialized but there will still be a need for them. Kindle may be convenient but sometimes one wants to interact with something other than an electronic device. The poor will always be with us; as the country spirals into a permanent Depression, there will be more of them. Along with the sometimes financially strapped; the library can be a lifeline for them if they can’t afford a Kindle or pay to download all their reading needs or those of their school-age children. It’s nice to be able to download a book in one’s PJs but one needs to also get out of the house more – a stroll or (gasp!) a drive to the bookstore or library to browse and/or buy might be a good idea every now and then.
Interesting how Tara can part with books but not microfilm, priceless pictures, and documents found in the library. Can’t these items be digitalized and downloaded and we toss the originals and burn the useless library???
“The county library system should have no more than five branches tops a decade from now, including the computer farm. Libraries across the country are beginning to confront this reality, with 66 percent of them offering some form of e-books in an attempt to justify their existence.”
As Jim Woodward, chair of the Future of the Library Task Force, aptly put it to a group of donors earlier this month: when you have a car, 5 or 10 miles is nothing…but when you have to walk or rely on public transit that is a great distance – one that would probably convince you not to go (which “blocks” access to literacy materials, job help resources, and information in general)
And our library does offer e-books, FYI (cmlibrary.org for more info)
“The e-book craze will wipe out 90 percent of bookstores in a decade, the Journal forecasts. This message has apparently not hit home with the people trying to save our financially struggling libraries here in Mecklenburg County.”
Actually, the Future of the Library Task Force spent a good deal of time on this issue, as have many of us other “people trying to save our financially struggling libraries.” The conclusion remains that there is not enough good data to back-up any claim that ebooks are taking away library users. During this same time you speak of ebook popularity going up, library usership went up.
How about this: for your next piece, you go to ALL the library branches and interview the people using the computer, asking librarians questions, and doing work. Just ask them what they do there and how often they come. And then ask them what they’d do if the library wasn’t there.
“The county library system should have no more than five branches tops a decade from now, including the computer farm. Libraries across the country are beginning to confront this reality, with 66 percent of them offering some form of e-books in an attempt to justify their existence.”
As Jim Woodward, chair of the Future of the Library Task Force, aptly put it to a group of donors earlier this month: when you have a car, 5 or 10 miles is nothing…but when you have to walk or rely on public transit that is a great distance – one that would probably convince you not to go (which “blocks” access to literacy materials, job help resources, and information in general)
And our library does offer e-books, FYI (cmlibrary.org for more info)
“The e-book craze will wipe out 90 percent of bookstores in a decade, the Journal forecasts. This message has apparently not hit home with the people trying to save our financially struggling libraries here in Mecklenburg County.”
Actually, the Future of the Library Task Force spent a good deal of time on this issue, as have many of us other “people trying to save our financially struggling libraries.” The conclusion remains that there is not enough good data to back-up any claim that ebooks are taking away library users. During this same time you speak of ebook popularity going up, library usership went up.
How about this: for your next piece, you go to ALL the library branches and interview the people using the computer, asking librarians questions, and doing work. Just ask them what they do there and how often they come. And then ask them what they’d do if the library wasn’t there.
I am a voracious reader – usually reading through the six books I check out from the library way before they’re due back. I for one cannot afford to buy six books or more a month, in paperback OR digital form. In fact, I can’t even afford a Nook or Kindle to read an e-book on.
Also, I can’t afford to recreate the feeling every kid gets when they obtain their first library card. Not really the same as, “Look, mom, my very first Kindle!” (Never mind the fact that I wouldn’t let my four year old near a $200 device.)
And then, as someone who loves to do research, it would be difficult to have three sources open in front of you on an e-reader to do comparisons or pull quotes or gather support for your theories.
I hope that we never lose our libraries. When we do, society will take a hard hit indeed.
I don’t understand.
“The e-book craze will wipe out 90 percent of bookstores in a decade, the Journal forecasts. This message has apparently not hit home with the people trying to save our financially struggling libraries here in Mecklenburg County”. This sentence makes no sense unless you’re saying libraries do exactly the same thing as bookstores.
And we all know they don’t.
Bookstores don’t:
– provide information about local public services and community groups
– offer literacy and learning support
– provide business advice
– help people apply for jobs
– help people search for and analyse information
– provide equitable access to information, culture and the arts for free
– and like, a gazillion other things that aren’t BOOKS.
Do you really think that everyone will be able to afford ebooks? And that if suddenly everyone in the world (literate or not) had an ebook reader and unlimited access to free ebooks, that’d be enough?
So, er, yeah, we really do need our libraries. Because ebooks, like print books, are a vessel, not the solution to all our information needs as standalone objects.
The lead in that Amazon has sold more ebooks than paper books is not true. Business insider has broken down the numbers. (http://www.businessinsider.com/sorry-amazon-kindle-e-books-outselling-hardcovers-isnt-that-impressive-2010-7)
What Amazon has done is sold more ebooks than hardcover sales (not all paper books- shoddy reporting). According to Business insider, 23% of all paper books are hardcover sales, the rest are paperback. If Amazon has 19% of the market, then that means a little over 15 million hardcover books sold. Based on the stated quarter ratio of Kindle vs hardcover for Amazon sales, that’s 22 million or 6% of the total print book market.
Interesting you mention the bottomless money pit that is CMS. How about you use some of your “investigative” skills to figure out how a system with a $1.2 billion (with a B!) budget STILL needs $40 million more of our dollars?!?
Of course that may require you to visit a library, but as your article clearly indicates, that’s something you have not done for a looooooooooooong time!
Get a clue muckraker!
Tara Servatius Linked to Terrorist White Supremacist Group : League of the South
http://freecharlotte.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/tara-servatius-linked-to-white-supremacist-terrorist-group-league-of-the-sout/
Do you really care what this person thinks?
Libraries have been part of human civilization since ancient Egypt, where the library at Alexandria was considered a world wonder. Libraries have evolved throughout history. When I began working in libraries just 40 years ago, we were typing little paper catalog cards on typewriters. In that time, libraries world-wide have adapted to the vast technological changes that society has experienced. Libraries will continue to evolve and in forty years will certainly look different than they do today, but to assume that simply because books can be read on e-readers we should close down libraries today is short-sighted at the least and dangerously elitest at the worst.
Just another Republican elitist trying to pawn off her shoddy journalism (see Rush and Glenn) as an actual investigative piece. This is one of the most loathsome articles I have read in a long time. To say that our city (and country) doesn’t need libraries! I am appalled at the trash that you now print, CL. I used to work for you, but I wouldn’t even pick up a paper to line a birdcage with it anymore. CL actually used to have REAL journalists, photographers, graphic designers. Now it is just a crock. The best thing for the city would be for you guys to just pack it in, you now, officially, suck. And Tara, do us all a favor and stop writing your tripe. Stick to an on line blog.
Although we certainly have to make tough economic decisions right now, it’s really scary thought to just say “let’s cut the libraries!”. There is something to be said for the quiet safe space of a library- there is a special “books” smell, the excitement of finding a new (or old favorite) book. Libraries provide essential community space and services; let’s not privatize EVERYTHING this country has fought so hard to enjoy. Libraries are often one of the few places that provide educational and entertainment opportunities for low-income folks; we cannot afford to deprive the American people of educational opportunities at a time like this. I think there is something to be said for consolidating branches, ramping up volunteer efforts, or being creative with fundraising ideas… but to suggest an end to libraries? Unthinkable.