I'm just gobsmacked that a member of the editorial board, a journalist, of a major metropolitan newspaper would say he has no use for libraries, nor show any indication that he understands their functions.

What makes it truly heartbreaking to me is that the library was pretty happening. It was small, but it was always loaded with kids, running through the stacks, sitting on the floor with small piles of books. I mean, it really is a lovely little building. Plus, there were huge displays of quilts by Kathleen Weinheimer who was a truly amazing artist.

>wow, I had no idea that marking the text was a taught skill. We were so not allowed to mark up the (school-owned, and they were pretty much all school or library owned) books in my day.

Me three.

Another value of libraries is that they give people who cannot otherwise afford it access to the internet! Adults and kids.

That's so sad, Allyson. Our libraries seem to constantly be in peril of losing funding and being closed, but so far the voters have stepped up and at least okayed bond measures to keep them going.

Another value of libraries is that they give people who cannot otherwise afford it access to the internet! Adults and kids.

The two or three branch libraries I go to on an irregular basis are always packed full of people waiting for computer access.

Here's the link to the library:

[link]

Check out the hours that are left. It's such horseshit.

People are hypocrites. Hypocrites who complain about not having enough firetrucks, enough teachers, or patches for their potholes, but won't pass a tax override anyway.

Yeah, I love my get-out-of-debt radio guru, but he goes on the occasional conservative rant. This time it was national health care and how we shouldn't trust the government to do anything efficiently. His one exception? The military! Yeah, if the war in Iraq has taught us anything, it's how efficient our government is.

Another value of libraries is that they give people who cannot otherwise afford it access to the internet!

Well if those people cannot afford the internet access, then clearly they're not real Americans. They're probably welfare leeches too. And I imagine most of them are brown, or foreigners, or brown foreigners, anyway. The rest are gay.

t /suddenly bitter

His one exception? The military!

So efficient they hired private companies like Blackwater.

Yeah, the last time I wanted to use a computer at the branch library I go to, it was the middle of a weekday, and it was going to be a two hour wait for a 15-minute slot -- and a longer wait for a longer slot.

And awesomely, the NYPL is open 6 days a week now (again). Which is sweet.