New report #5

Another closing of libraries in a city in California is in the news. The city of Colton, California is losing both of their two public libraries to closings. The city counsil said the closing was due to lost of revenue for this past year. The library President Peter Carrasco called for the support from the community to prove to the board that the libraries are really needed. The call was heard and answered. Over 100 people were said to have come to the city counsil's meeting to show their support for their local libraries. The City Counsil members took this in to great consideration but, they still chose to close the libraries. Further anger was stated from the president because of the lack of communication that the counsil gave to the library about the closing. The library workers were giving no warning about the closing except that they would be out of a job with in a week. The 17 workers had no warning and therefore no time in which to find another job to try and make ends meet. Carrasco stated that the board was given no warning as to the closing and was not asked to help find solutions to the lost of money. He stated that a counsil member called him after the decision was already finalized to inform him of the closing.
This is the second article in a row that I have read that invovles local town libraries being closed. I'm starting to see a trend here. Why is it that the libraries are suddenly being blamed for the lose of revenue? The end of the article contained information on $43000 dollars that could go to the libraries if the board members would just give up there gas fund. I believe these guys are making enough money that if they really want to have these libraries stay open that they can. In each of the articles I have read it seems that the community is upset about the libraries closing but the City Counsils seems to not really take this into consideration like they should. I thought that they were elected to support the people not ignore them. Maybe its time they start sacrificing a little bit for the people that put them in to power in the first place, but maybe thats just my thinking.

News Report #4

"It May Cost Too Much to Close Libraries in Reading, Pennsylvania"
11/11/09
www.ala.org/ala/alonoline/currentnews/newsarchive/2009/novemeber2009/readingfightsback110409.cfm

The citizens of the town of Reading, Pennsylvania have become very concerned with the current fate of the libraries in their town. The town has four libraries and due to budget cuts by the governement the town is being forced to close three out of the four libraries. The town will only be able to keep open the biggest and most used library in the town after the current year. This has caused many of the citizens of the town to try different things to keep the libraries open. Third graders from the town elementary school tried saving up their dollar bills and taking them to the mayor to show their concern for the closign libraries. Other people have suggested having volunteers help with the running of the library so that it will not cost as much to keep them open. At any rate the town is having to make cuts of up 2.7 million dollars to the budget that they originally thought for 2010. It is this major cut that is causing the lose of the three libraries in the town. The town will also be losing 9 out of the 20 workers that are employeed to keep the libraries running.
It always seems that the government is first to cut money to libraries or to education rather than to defense. We are in the middle of a recession and everyone knows this but its funny that I seem to still see brand new police cars in every town I come too. We have no money for libraries right now but some how the government finds money to get new cop cars. It seems to be this way with many things that the governemtn does. I'm not saying that it is wrong that we have new cop cars I'm just saying that maybe we should rethink our spending when we can't even afford to keep libraries open. I feel that the money sould atleast be handed out some what fairly. I don't see why we need new cop cars or other new things like that when that money could be used to help out our education department and libraries.

Reading Report #4

This is another article about how my generation is not information literate. The article tells of how this generation is seen as better with technology except when it comes to doing scholarly research. College students tend to not use the resources that are given to them and use the more convient form of Google to do all their research. Colleges are making a push to get students more "Information Literate". They are hiring librarians for the sole purpose of being able to educate the students on their campus to use the research resources that are available to them. These resources primary involve databases that contain scholarly journals that have articles that students can use for their research. The article says that the more students learn of these sources the more "Information Literate" that they will become. This will help the current generation to educate future generations to actually know how to properly research a paper. The article goes on to tell of how this is not a new concept even though some librarians are acting like it is. The term of being information literate has been around since the 1980's for sure.
I guess since i have read like three articles about my generation not being about to do proper research then I should really start to believe it. I feel like many students would make more use of these databases if they had more education about them. If it wasn't for me taking this class then I would have never known of the datbases or how to use them. Maybe if part of freshmen seminar was used to educate about proper research and the use of these resources then more students would use them. If you get to a student early then that are alot more likely to make use of the information and the technology that they can use. If they get in to a pattern of using Google to research then their not going to be likely to change by the time their a junior or a senior. There is definately a problem with students not being able to do proper research but, it is partly the universities responsiblity to education the student so that they can use the resources that their money pays for.