Tiny Victory
For a year or more, the town of Salinas has been threatening to close its libraries because of budget shortfalls. Much has been made of this, as Salinas and the surrounding area are where John Steinbeck lived and wrote, and isn't it a shame on account of that. Clearly, libraries closing in regions where famous American writers did not live or write is not a tragedy of the same magnitude. Well, today the Chronicle reports that the libraries will stay open in Salinas, due to a heavy fund-raising campaign that raised $500,000 (Bill Murray donated $12,500--his winnings from a golf tournament in Pebble Beach). Mind you, that's only til the end of the year. After that, I guess Murray's going to have to win another tournament.
Don't get me wrong; I'm glad Salinas gets to keep its libraries open--part-time--for another eight months. It just offends me to to the core that libraries across the country are being threatened, diminished, closed. I want a bumper sticker that says "Andrew Carnegie Was Right."
Don't get me wrong; I'm glad Salinas gets to keep its libraries open--part-time--for another eight months. It just offends me to to the core that libraries across the country are being threatened, diminished, closed. I want a bumper sticker that says "Andrew Carnegie Was Right."
posted by Madeleine Robins at 9:12 AM
4 Comments:
I've written a review of Point of Honour for www.gottawritenetwork.com. I'd be glad to email you a copy, as it is usual practice for GWN reviewers to send a copy to respective authors. However, I am unable to locate your email address and the publisher's web site does not offer an email address for review receipts. Please leave me a comment at my blog (as a private note) if you'd like me to email you a copy of the review. Best, True North http://www.opendiary.com/entrylist.asp?authorcode=D507415
By the way, we have a tiny little Carnegie library right down the street. 20,000 books, and still utilizing the card catalogue system. No Internet. You want to take out a book, you sign your name on the card in the pocket of the book. That's it. I love it! True North
I worked in a library like that one summer (and in my high school library and my college library. I love libraries, clearly...) You could choke on the dust, but they never threw anything out; there are writers from the 20s and 30s that I discovered in those stacks (don't think you'd find J. Phillips Oppenheimer in the SF Library system these days) because of the institutional inertia. Inertia as the Author's Best Friend!
True--couldn't figure out how to leave a private note. I'd love to see the review, but could wait until they post it on gottawritenetwork, if that's a problem.
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