Dallas News Blog

Central Library should be privatized or closed and that should be enough to preserve the neighborhood branches, which after all are the ones that really serve the community. The more esoteric and academic collections at the Central Library could go to UNT or SMU. The new UNT campus on the Southern sector would get a tremendous shot in the arm if the central library book collection became their core book collection. The city should not be running an academic library. Leave that to the universities. This would, of course, require the city to think outside the box and for Mary Suhm to stop protecting her friend librarians.

The empty building could then be turned over to the Homless coalition to manage as an annex to the new Homeless center. Oh, never mind, it's already the annext to the homeless center.

Aw, man, this stinks. I love the library. Even the downtown library. I like the exhibitions, and you gotta admit it definitely adds spice to the day to have a homeless guy yell "Heil Hitler!" at you when he gets on the elevator with you. Though I haven't seen that particular guy in a while.

Really, we get so much bang for our buck from the library. Knottybaby went to a zillion storytimes between Lakewood and Skillman/Southwestern. We adore the Bookmarks branch at NorthPark Mall. I hate that the city will be cutting back on something that provides so much good to so many people. I see people working on the computers all the time. I see families stocking up on books and cds and dvds. I used to see very, very crowded rooms for storytime before Knottybaby started school, and I'm sure there are still tons of kids and babies going to storytime every week.

I know the cuts have to be made, but I sure wish there were something else that could go first.

Tired:
"Central Library should be privatized or closed and that should be enough to preserve the neighborhood branches, which after all are the ones that really serve the community."
And you were last in the Central Library to do what?
I know of at least three people who wrote books in the Central Library. But of course that wouldn't be serving the community would it? And at term-paper time the place is jammed with students, because no neighborhood branch has anything like the resources of the Central Library. But that isn't serving the community either, is it? And nobody really lives close to downtown -- say in all those new apartments and condos that have sprung up. They're all somewhere out in some other community, wherever the hell that is. So the Central Library isn't serving them, is it?
Ah, and the homeless. Which is where we get down to your real problem. Because if you ever actually went to the Central Library you might encounter someone not of your social class, and they couldn't possibly be reading a book, could they? No. Because that would mean that the Central Library is somehow serving a community -- though not YOUR community.
Maybe it's just easier to say that you don't have the shadow of an idea what you're talking about, and let it go at that.

Proposed Bumper Sticker to be placed on a decorated flatbed leading a groundswell non-partisan citizen parade:

Bill Marvel Has The Voice That Gets My Vote

Tired's comments remind me of an Andy Rooney spiel on 60 minutes a few years ago about public libraries. The one where he suggested public libraries should get rid of their fiction collections. If I had any respect for the man's opinions before I certainly have had none since. Privatizing is another bad idea.

As someone who couldn't have imagined life beyond my neighborhood, and possibilities for my future beyond the mundane, the fiction collection and services of the Dallas Central Library were really important in my life. I would regularly get my mother to drive me down there from north Dallas because the collection was bigger and it felt like an adventure. I know there are thousands of kids who feel the same. It is not a waste of money. I guarantee you that I and others to whom the library was key in sparking our imaginations will generate more tax revenue than we might otherwise have for the city and the country. Long-term thinking is good people.

I agree w/Bill Marvel's comments. I have lived downtown for nearly 4 years, and have been an avid user of the Central Library the entire time. It serves a valuable purpose and is always teeming with people when I visit.