Save the county, close the libraries

This article is ridiculous and asinine. People do conduct serious research at the library. You can order books from the Sonoma County branch, which I have done time and again while in graduate school at Sonoma State University. The computers at the library provide a desperately needed service for people that need access to the internet and cannot afford it. Yes, some people in this day and age still don't have a computer. Some of those people are children and they deserve to learn. The continuation of a democratic society demands informed citizens. Closing the library will only further erode the intellect of Mendocino County residents. My suggestion is that the author actually use the library to overcome his insufferable ignorance.

The only viable and reliable evidence that the public school system has failed is that local adult journalists do not read real live books.

Fish On!! TWK, do you tie your own flies?

It is very obvious by your article you desperately NEED to visit your library .....way out of touch

Now you've gone off the deep end TWK. I suggest you go look for the next defenseless target of your tirades. I hope it helps assuage your most obvious mental deficiencies..

OMG I think for once I get your sarcasm.

Right on Tommy, let's close the libraries up. A relic of the past, no longer relevant in the Google society. Why not just make it a transient rest area with more comfy chairs?

I personally use the Ukiah library to check out books for the kids... but that's about it.

I'd MUCH rather have our tax dollars go towards providing a few free wifi spots in and around Ukiah -- at least that's a service we'd use!

Meanwhile, ditch the dusty old books and remodel the library as a free Internet cafe/Kinkos (paid for by taxes, espressos and color copies).

What an entertaining article. Although I do not agree with everything you said, I did have to chuckle a few times. Thankfully, I do not share your ignorant view of our library and staff.

I am a full time working parent (and a taxpaying resident of Mendocino County) who utilizes the library on a REGULAR basis. I enjoy visiting the library as do my children. We enjoy browsing the many books, and when we don’t find something we want, we order it through the library system which allows us to borrow from other branches throughout Lake, Mendocino and Sonoma County. My kids are always excited to hear that the book they have been looking forward to reading has arrived at our local branch. As a working person, I don’t see how the current library hours are not convenient. I find that evenings, lunch hours and Saturdays are a very convenient time for my children and I to visit the library. If the hours were tailored to benefit the employees of the library, why would they be working weekends and evenings? These hours are for the convenience of the public, not the staff.
I also do not use the library as a pit stop between Plowshares and Ford Street, nor do I use it as a day care. Nor do many of the people that I know who visit the library. What better place than a library to surround our children with literature full of art, adventure, humor and suspense? I am glad we have the library for that very reason.

I enjoy the internet and have found a lot useful information there. However, after a long day, I don’t want to curl up in bed with my laptop - give me a book any day!

Your last insult to the library staff really ticked me off. The staff at our Ukiah branch are educated men and women who have a love for literature and want to share that love with other people.
Too bad you are a bigot and cannot see the value our staff and the patrons of our library. I think it’d be more “convenient” for you and the general public if you just stayed home and colored. I’ll even pitch in a new set of crayons!

Funny but sort of nasty story. It won't help fix corrupt police and the drain of millionaire pot-growers who are on Medi-Cal.

In todays world the library needs to go. Total waste of tax payers dollars. But the people of this community would whine like hell. Some think this county should remain like it was 20 years ago as if time and progress just passed us by. LOSERS

Every time I visit the Ukiah library, it is a bustling place of people using the computers, sitting at tables with books, and browsing the stacks. Parking on Saturday mornings is often a challenge, especially on days when the Children's library is hosting one of their many reading and craft programs. I frequently see adults and children using the comfortable chairs to look over books together.

The interlibrary loan feature allows me to find a huge range of materials collected not only within Mendocino, but also Sonoma and Lake counties. I can access the catalog from my home, find the books that interest me, and have them waiting for me within a week. And it's a pleasure to not have to store books that really only needed to be consulted once. My daughter's toddler years would have been unbearable if we'd needed to buy every book we ever read.

We are lucky to have some of the kindest, most resourceful librarians in our county that I have encountered anywhere - and that's saying a lot.

If this is all you have to write about TWK, find another vocation. On second thought newspapers are relics of the past as well. Your time will come soon. All good then.

Totally agree with the article. I have been saying it for years. We can't afford to waste public money propping up an obsolete institution.

It's called "tongue in cheek" folks. Give the guy a break. If he pushed your buttons, so be it. That's his job!
As far as the "citizens" who actually believe the library should be closed due to obsolesence or for "tax releif", well......... Since you never learned to read well, maybe it's best you just stayed away and keep pressing those buttons on your keyboard. Leave the books to the readers!

Weird

Don't close the library. Think of the kids, not the dumbasses that want to save money.

Is this supposed to be a joke column?
I teach a 16 week graduate course that is an introduction to data base searching. None of the material can be found with an Internet search engine. We cover more than 100 systems. The listing of the data bases from one system takes a book 900 pages long. There is also a second and a third course in the theory of creating data bases and their management.
Cataloging library materials is a complex task that involves more rules than non-catalogers can imagine. The rules need to apply to recorded knowledge in any language and format. Some difficult materials take more than an hour to enter into the catalog.
Libraries are no more difficult to get to than any other place you want to go. From my home I can walk to several. If you count the library web sites and data base libraries are available 24/7. Most days I physically visit 2 or more libraries and electronically visit 10 or more.
If you want to balance the budget tell everyone to stop criminal activities. That would pare the police departments, security forces, and courts to almost nothing. Everyone would then have plenty of time to go to the library and read books and magazines for recreation.

RIGHT ON wrote:

In todays world the library needs to go. Total waste of tax payers dollars. But the people of this community would whine like hell. Some think this county should remain like it was 20 years ago as if time and progress just passed us by. LOSERS

In today's world this country needs to have access to information. In today's world we need to teach our children to use their minds to solve problems. In today's world papers that print this sort of garbage need to hang it up.

Wow, what a load of ignorance. The Internet is fine if you want to communicate, look up quick bits of research (weather, sports scores), or look at dirty websites, but for the rest of us who actually care about self-development, libraries are the way to go.

Besides, who says libraries only carry books? I utilize my library's databases for peer-reviewed online-journals, and online language programs like Mango languages and Gale Powerspeak.

Visit the library before you spew out nonsense, you moron.