Save the county, close the libraries
If Mendocino County is strapped for money, and I believe it is, the most logical thing it could do is close down all the libraries. Lock the doors, shut off the lights, sell the books. Rent out the buildings to Domino Pizza outlets and Verizon franchises. Turn the bookmobile into a taco truck. Libraries are the blacksmith shops of the 21st century, obsolete relics of another era.
Appears to be a joke
I think the author was attempting to be humorous, although it isn’t clear until the very last paragraph (when he says that his anti-library rant was underwritten by the local bookstores)
Har Har
It would be funnier if there was a good use of humor coating the traditional arguments against libraries.
In reference to librarians’
In reference to librarians’ paltry skills sets and the concern over loss of library positions, Mr. Kramer argues “if your only job skills are a thorough understanding of the Dewey Decimal System and the ability to alphabetize, what did you expect? Tenure?”
If anyone needs to read Marilyn Johnson’s new book, it’s Mr. Kramer.
The Fall of the American Empire …
In 1986 : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090985/ Le declin de l’empire américain, The Decline of The American Empire …
Probably not a joke.
Naw. This would be funny if libraries weren’t closing all over the country for these same reasons and rants.
The community is a hick town full of rubes. Let them close the library, and the school library, and even burn all the books in the town square. We will always need their children to move to larger cities where they can flip burgers and clean our streets, and to compete with illegal foreign workers for basic jobs with little skills.
Those who can read, but don’t, have no advantage over those who can’t read. They forget in this town, if they ever knew, that those who read lead, and those who don’t read follow the orders from people who do.
R. Lee Hadden (These are my own opinions!)
whooah!
different views on librarianship must be respected. If these libraries will no longer be needed..close it and provide other avenues for children to learn their ABCs….