Comments on Sexy Librarians Need Your Help!

But what's in it for me?

True, this sucks, but there IS a budget shortfall...if you give the library system $2million, it's gonna have to come from some other program...what are you going to cut?

did I miss the sexy parts?

@3

Librarians are sexy. Duh.

Look, I have the book fetish too. I love books. But do you seriously believe that a artfully designed warehouse full of dead trees and ink is the most efficient way to give poor people access to information? To me a first class library is a luxury.

To me a need is more like putting an end to Seattle having the smallest police force in the country, especially with the worsening economy and expected increase in street crime as a result. Getting mugged because they spent the police budget on a pretty library is completely [sic] bullshit if you ask me.

But once our two wars are over, the economy turns around, we get some socialized health care, and Seattle builds some fucking rapid transit and builds a real police force, then definitely, I would be all about a gold-plated library system. All about it, my friend.

(I know somebody education and libraries are supposed to cure our economic ills, but that's a reactionary, conservative, Republican idea, and it's not the cure. Fifty year old whose job got shipped overseas? Education! War veteran with PTSD? Education! A woman making 70 cents on the dollar? Education! Please. Give me justice and equality and I'll buy my own damn education.)

Fuck SPL! They pissed away taxpayer money like a drunken sailor by dumping $165 million into the Central Library. Granted, it's a gorgeous building, but it was inexcusable for them to build a monument to Debra Jacobs ego only to cry poverty later. The leadership at SPL has done a great disservice to the citizens of Seattle by ignoring their mission and they don't deserve a bailout now.

Why bother?

When SPL goes back to letting department librarians pick which books to buy, based on their expertise and suggestions made by taxpayers, then I would say let them have more money.

As it stands now, and as it has been for a few years, a cadre of bean counters decides what to buy. More copies of bestsellers, mostly.

Doug Nufer

SPL budget slashed? I looked at the budget submitted by the Mayor to the Council, and the Library budget goes up each of the next two years. Friends of the SPL blog says the budget is $2 million short of projected need, not that it's being cut by that amount. I'm sure there are a multitude of programs, like housing for example, who can make a claim for a much larger shortfall.

This is what I sent to them:

"I have lived in Seattle for 15 years and have never understood the lack of depth the collections at any of the branches have. Seattle is great at making the developers happy by building/renovating libraries but when it comes to STOCKING the libraries, Seattle has failed and failed miserably. Every time you want to find a book at your local branch you have to order it from another branch at times waiting months. To be honest, if I need something right away, I go and buy it at Barnes and Noble.

Oh, and with our lack of transit in Seattle to actually get anywhere, traveling by bus to another branch is rarely an option.

If you are not going to fund the libraries, I suggest closing a few of them down. Right now most are just empty shells that look pretty."

i had sex in a library once. wasn't very sexy.

Paul, I was in a library the other day in which one of the employees was yelling right in the middle of the library (he was teaching a class) and nobody did anything about it because the management is too busy counting beans. Does the management ever actually go down and look around or are they just too busy swilling lattes in their offices, pining for awards, enjoying their salaries, ordering more copies of Danielle Steele, eliminating racks for local and experimental authors, welcoming musicians and other so called "artists" into the library, and blaming homeless people for all the library's problems.

This is the most wackadoodle bunch of comments I have ever read! A bunch of dead trees?! People: please! What about giving computer access to thousands of people every day? I didn't have my own computer until just two years ago. I used the library computers to write resumes, search for jobs, apply to school, apply for loans find out about my tenant rights, etc. The library has helped me make my life so much better. The library isn't just about books anymore.

And complaining about who gets to pick the books? They do that to save money, idiot. If they had more money, they could pay their already stretched-thin librarians to spend time picking books.

And whoever thinks that SPL managers swill lattes all day doesn't know the same kick-ass, hard-working, community-advocating SPL managers that I do.

@12

How is the additional $1.5 million they're advocating for the materials budget going to affect Internet access one way or the other? And adding to the materials budget by $1.5 million -- how does that pay for librarian hours to spend choosing books? Salaries aren't affected by the materials budget, are they? It gives them more money to play with, but it isn't clear to me it is going to make them spend it more wisely. If anything, they'll go on a shopping spree.

1. the Central Building already looks dated and I for one can't stand to be inside.

2. All the pretty branches are way over built for what is really needed - state of the art computer labs. They limit the time you can be on line - yeah, weird or is it just me. I am an avid reader - since childhood, and have lived in my book heaven. Good thing I didn't do my thing on line.

3. Need to consolidate ALL of the libraies in the County and fund via a Library Disrtict - it works in Benton-Franklin very well... Mid Columbia System.

4. I can hear the howls now from The So August Seattle Library Establishment.

"2 million dollars short of the library’s projected need."

projected.

as in, why don't they trim the fat instead of asking for more money than the millions they've gobbled up?

What's all this library bashing about? Maybe the library isn't doing anything for you but it's giving me internet access and wifi and CD's and books I don't have the luxury to buy at Barnes and Noble. I get to see arts programs I can't afford. I go to meetings in the library too. I hear alot on this blog about what people think the library stands for but I don't think any of you are using it? You're not using the same library I'm using anyway.