Book People Archive

Library Closings: Was Book Pricing


Having spent more time in Grants Pass and Medford than the
average person, I feel I should mention that population in
the combined cities didn't even reach 100,000 last census,
so this is something like talking about Southern Illinois,
as compared to Northern Illinois, for those of you who may
be more familiar with how those statistics are managed.

However, I can tell you that I just stopped in an Illinois
small town named Deland last week, population under 1,000,
and found its old Carnegie Public Library still healthy.

Kids were there logged into the Internet, and they seem to
still have under 2,000 books, but at least it's there, and
still open, after all these years.


Michael S. Hart
Founder
Project Gutenberg

PS

In my own personal experience with Medford, it seemed big,
bigger than the under 75,000 from the 2000 census, and the
Grants Pass population seemed smaller than nearly 25,000--
perhaps just the way they towns are laid out.

I'd like to hear more about these library closings and why
they seem to be located in the extreme far west, not all a
great distances from I-5, just curious if this is a random
statistical anomaly, or a real pattern.

Thanks!!!

Michael


On Fri, 12 Oct 2007, David Starner wrote:

> On 10/10/07, collver@[redacted] <collver@[redacted]> wrote:
>> The Grants Pass and Medford libraries are closed due to lack of funding.
>> Considering that these are the largest communities in the Southern Oregon
>> region, the people cannot borrow the book for free.
>
> I'd have to say that shows how valuable libraries are to people. And
> the fewer readers, the less the demand, the more the expense.