The governor of the US state of California wants to "cut all state funding for local libraries – about $30 million", "erase funding that allows libraries with fewer resources to borrow books from more affluent facilities. Brown's budget would also cut off support that helps libraries hire staff, buy books and maintain hours of operation..." thinking that they will "push more libraries to adapt to a new era of online information."
However, "[m]any libraries have hesitated to acquire more digital content because of the annual service fees – on top of the purchase costs...". So budget cuts are meant to encourage public libraries to do things that they mostly avoid doing due to insufficient budgets. Wait, what?
Apparently, the popularity of libraries "may not last as more information hits the Internet for free." A self-proclaimed supporter of libraries said "he would stop using libraries if he could cheaply access the expensive legal textbooks that he needs." And that's going to happen soon, right? Right?
[ Quote and the motivation to write this from "Jerry Brown's plan may alter how libraries are used, funded" by Jack Chang from The Sacramento Bee on February 19, 2011 ]
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