Rural library district is needed
To respond to Rod Newbound's letter regarding libraries (March 4), the Skagit Valley College Library serves primarily students and faculty, not the general "public." For a $20 fee, I access college-level, adult materials at SVC, but there are no resources for children and limited general adult resources.
Services from the Washington State Library in Olympia are not really available directly to individuals in any meaningful way, but mostly indirectly, e.g., interlibrary loans.
Thrift stores are great for mass-market paperbacks, but not for specific subjects or titles. Some better books at Goodwill are $9.99 - many good quality books are $3 to $5 each - not pennies on the dollar. Missing are nonfiction, audio and video materials, references, current newspapers, periodicals, online databases, or children's programs.
By the time Mr. Newbound pays a $20 fee to SVC, drives to the state library, buys books in a thrift store, and pays for a nonresident card from an existing library, he will have burned up more than the $80 a year or so proposed tax and will have benefited only himself. Better to pay a modest tax, pooling resources to produce richer benefits for all.
Living in the city, I have paid a tax for public libraries pretty much forever - an excellent investment. It's because we "city dwellers" pay a tax that we have existing libraries from which Mr. Newbound can purchase a nonresident card. I hope Mr. Newbound will step up to the plate, strengthen his professed support of libraries, and vote yes for the rural library district.
Maryanne Ward, Mount Vernon
Letters to the Editor - Skagit Valley Herald
Services from the Washington State Library in Olympia are not really available directly to individuals in any meaningful way, but mostly indirectly, e.g., interlibrary loans.
Thrift stores are great for mass-market paperbacks, but not for specific subjects or titles. Some better books at Goodwill are $9.99 - many good quality books are $3 to $5 each - not pennies on the dollar. Missing are nonfiction, audio and video materials, references, current newspapers, periodicals, online databases, or children's programs.
By the time Mr. Newbound pays a $20 fee to SVC, drives to the state library, buys books in a thrift store, and pays for a nonresident card from an existing library, he will have burned up more than the $80 a year or so proposed tax and will have benefited only himself. Better to pay a modest tax, pooling resources to produce richer benefits for all.
Living in the city, I have paid a tax for public libraries pretty much forever - an excellent investment. It's because we "city dwellers" pay a tax that we have existing libraries from which Mr. Newbound can purchase a nonresident card. I hope Mr. Newbound will step up to the plate, strengthen his professed support of libraries, and vote yes for the rural library district.
Maryanne Ward, Mount Vernon
Letters to the Editor - Skagit Valley Herald
posted by Christian at 3/10/2005
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