The Seattle Public Library system will close Monday, Aug. 31 through Sunday, Sept. 6 due to citywide budget cuts (click to read rest of press release at the library website).
No materials will be due; no fines will be accrued, and there will be no access to the library website during that week. The estimated savings from the closure: $655,000.
Even the website?
Wow, that really is a complete shutdown.
It does get the point across
It does get the point across though.
Very good point
I think it’s to SPL’s credit that they’re making the point that budget cuts *cut.* There’s a limit to “doing more with less,” a limit that many libraries probably passed some time back.
Treating web access identically to in-person access is one way to clarify things, particularly in a high-tech city. Good for SPL.
why no website???
that’s just being spiteful… the bandwidth and those databases are already paid for so I don’t see the savings with that decision…
future news:
September 5, 2009: the Seattle Public Library is looted of all of its computer equipment. A spokesman for the library said, “Yeah, we probably shouldn’t have advertised that no one would be in the building all of last week.”
No savings?
Reduced electricity load from not running servers as well as the air conditioning units required to keep the servers from getting deranged does add up. That is a very real savings killing the website for a week would allow.
As for how a system can become deranged, I can only point to old style Macs which were very temperature sensitive. My old newspaper where my byline ran had problems keeping layout systems up when the editorial office aircon died. Macs are not the only systems with temperature issues as even PCs can cross breaking points too.
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Closure and certification/accreditation?
Just curious…will this “closure” effect the Library’s state certification or accreditation? In many states, an outright closure (regardless of its length) will instantly render the Library ineligible for state certification/accreditation.
As far as I know…
public libraries are not accredited.
“Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds”
-Candide by Voltaire