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Tom Menino has an answer for the library crisis; also, David Ortiz gets [expletive] upset


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and this current "crisis", what happened to all that new revenue from the meals tax? For the last ten years Menino and Rakow have been crying for the ability to add a municipal tax on meals and hotels, an ability which was finally granted to them by the state legislature last year. These new taxes were supposed to help to counter the effects of cuts in local aid, and to prevent just these sorts of crises, with the subsequent layoffs and drastic service reductions. I just don't get it.

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Why was the Faneuil Branch library selected to be closed eventhough it's one of the top five busiest libraries in the city and Brighton's favorite? It's small and operates on a shoestring budget, but the librarians there get you what you need with efficiency and friendliness that should be the model for the city.

Amy Ryan would probably tell you it's because it doesn't have the adequate space and infrastructure to expand, wire, and power more computers. That's true. But the necessity to do so is built on expensive assumptions about the future that are questionable. 1) there will be more people who don't have access to computers at home in the future. 2) Large plug-in, fiber-optic cabled desktop computers will continue to be the technological computing standard. 3) The library is the best and only place to meet community internet needs.

Here's why these assumptions are questionable; 1) a rapidly increasing number of community residents have computers in their home, 2) small cordless wireless laptops, dirt-cheap netbooks, Ipads, and cellphones are becoming the trend rather than hardwired computer workstations (the computer equivalent of a phone booth), and lastly, public WiFi internet access is more available throughout the city will continue to expand.

If the goal is to increase computer literacy and access to computers, why not get Boston Public Schools on board with "one laptop per child"? Much of print media is going digital, but the BPL trustees fail to grasp the significance of that--it's not about providing a 3-dimensional place for that information where the public can go and get it. You don't need to go to a library to get an on-line article, all you need is a computer. What we do need a library for, is books. Technology will not make them obsolete. Radio, film, TV, and the internet have not killed the book. The kindle will not replace the deeply intellectual, spiritual and physical human need to read from a printed page. BPL President Amy Ryan's short-sighted, digitized vision of the 21st century library system will be expensive and outmoded before it's turned on.

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