From the pages of the Boston Globe Magazine’s “Tales from the City” of September 28, 2008:
In June, the Friends of the Ipswich Library Service had set up tables filled with books on the library lawn. Since it was the first weekend for summer hours, there was a prominent “Closed” sign on the library door. A young boy looked at that sign and the one announcing the book sale and asked, “Is the library going out of business?” We were happy to reassure him it wasn’t.
submitted by Suzanne Kiley; Ipswich
A little wry book sale humor … unfortunately we read too often about libraries cutting hours or even closing due to lack of funding!
Have any bookstores in your area closed? Has your public library suffered shorter hours due to budget constraints?
So far, neither of those things have happened around here, thankfully.
Our county’s library system has had to red line some programs (book mobile for one example) and reduce hours. They are probably doing other things that I’m not aware of. Hiring freeze? I rejoined the Friends of the Library and attend their book sales when I can.
Surprisingly no! With all the other cuts happening in my county, I am surprised the library was not first on the chopping block. (I have no fond feelings for my state, city or county government) As far as book stores go, there haven’t been very many local, privately owned book stores in my suburb for a while. Borders and Barnes and Noble seem to be doing just fine. Although, our favorite Borders which used to be located in a strip mall down the road a bit from our big super mall relocated to the big mall this past fall. They closed their gorgeous, huge 2 floor store and moved into a much smaller, 1 floor only location. It is really crowded and unorganized in there and we don’t like going there if we can help it–we go to Barnes and Noble instead.
Happy New Year!
*smiles*
Kim
Every time I visit my mom, we drive to this little used book (CD, record, and DVD/VHS) store but they went out of business last year
I sure do miss that store!
Fortunately, I have a wonderful library down here and so far it hasn’t had to suffer shorter hours. They buy new DVDs (got to go pick up Wall-E tomorrow) and popular books when they come out too so I don’t think funding is a big problem.
Kathy – our bookstore seems “safe” from economic woes (the downtown is very busy), and the library hasn’t cut hours (yet) … I’ve read about it in so many other towns, though. There was an article in the Boston Globe today about increase in library usage … not only for borrowing books but to sit and read because the libraries are heated in winter and have AC in summer!
cali – I support Friends of the Library, too. They sponsor so many great programs.
Kim – until we moved (1 1/2 years ago), Borders was my go-to “big box” store; there was a BN nearby, but I liked the atmosphere at Borders. Now I prefer BN over Borders. Even those chain stores have personality.
Tink – bummer that the used book store closed – I love finding treasures in those places! We borrow a lot of movies from the library, too; and I can put my name on the waiting list from the comfort of my own laptop