That's the balance sheet of the Port Washington Library here on Long Island. It's perhaps one the most well-funded libraries in the country with a $6.5 million budget but you can see it's *retirement benefits* line is exploding.
In just the past 3 years it's projected to jump from 237k to 516k!
How much of the operational budget are these entitled 'old coots' and 'old bags' going to be usurping in say 5 years? In 10 years?
How much expertise is required to shelve books anyway?
Rightfully, these places should be run by volunteer high school-age kids...
The question is, "How long after the internet and e-readers like Kindle
make libraries obsolete will they and the people who used to work in them continue to be funded by spineless property tax payers?"
1 comment:
My neighborhood library is very, very small and I have never seen more than one other person in there when I go. Usually it is a much older person on a computer.
We just built a new library that is twice the size of the older one. Go figure.
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