Library location: It's all about books
July 3, 2008 · Updated 9:55 PM
Last month while visiting my son on Capitol Hill in Seattle I saw a large, modern building. It was very impressive and as my son walked me back to my car I asked about it. Its very sad Mom. Its our library. You dont want to go inside. But through the window I saw a wonderful piece of art and insisted we go in to see it closer.
The building was remarkable and the art was wonderful but when I turned around to look at the rest of the place I was shocked. There were more empty shelves than books. It was full of people sitting in comfy chairs reading or on the many computers but there were so very few books. My visit only became more depressing when I came across a picture of the old library that was torn down to build this one. It was a wonderful old stately building that was just as big as the new one. I left the library in tears.
Now Oak Harbor wants to build a new library and an $18,000 study says that putting the new library downtown will draw 1,000 people a day to the businesses. That means that each and every person in Oak Harbor has to visit the library at least once in every 20 days. Is that a reasonable assumption? Is it reasonable to think that a town that doesnt pass school levies will pass a levy to build a new library?
Just dont forget, its about the books, not the building.
Sharyn Mellors
Coupeville
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