I'm miffed about our library trends and want your feed back



Here is why I am miffed... A few days ago while attending one of my neighborhood meetings, a neighbor asked me if I heard the latest news... "News??" I said, "What news?"... I was hoping it wasn't the latest town gossip, that I could most certainly do without. I was at the meeting on a mission, a mission to simply ensure that we are working together to make our neighborhoods safer, keep families together, discuss world peace... that sort of thing, but gossip? No time and no interest in my book.



Then she said "They've taken 90% of our books out of our library and have replaced them with DVD's, CD's, and video games". I'm sure my tonsils dried as my mouth hung open for what seemed like an eternity. What in the blankety blank blank did she mean that "They've taken 90% of our books??" And who ARE THEY?! And WHERE did OUR BOOKS GO???????



I just knew it was a joke. But it was true. I'm not sure about the rest of the U.S. or the world, but it seems that in my community, all of the books have been taken from the branch libraries and replaced with more "main stream" things that people want in their librarys such as books on CD, and more computers with internet access with limited chat room capabilities.



Maybe I'm a relic, but I think there is something special when there is an opportunity to disengage from electronics and take a nice book, sit somewhere in nature, or the library and just read. Touch the pages, smell the pages and let your mind enjoy something non-electronic. Are we so dadblasted busy and disconnected from the world around us, that we have to be plugged in all the time, to the point of having a book READ to us?



For me it isn't the same. I like having a book on CD from time to time, but it can be like riding a horse or driving a car, it's one thing to listen to someone describe it to me, versus me actually doing it. I want to say something, do something but what? Am I such a dinosaur?



Besides, have you seen how listless people become, the minute there isn't any electricity? It's like they go through withdrawal, no TV, no computer, no radio and they almost cease to move. Being engaged in reading books, doesn't cost alot but the value is endless.



I want to star the conversation about bringing the books back. It's a long and probably lost battle but I think it is a conversation worth having.



I welcome all of your ideas and feedback as to how to even attempt this conversation, but even if you have an opposing view, please share it.



Sincerely,



Sun Fish

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