Santa Clara County Library system to begin $80 annual fee for residents of some cities

[Newsjock]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

... Starting July 1, thousands of South Bay residents will have to shell out $80 a year to check out books from libraries run by Santa Clara County.

Library cards will remain free for people who live in the cities served by county libraries. But if you live in Los Gatos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara or Sunnyvale, you'll have to pay to get a county library card -- or hope your own city library has enough Hemingway and Harry Potter.

... Head librarians in those cities said they are now considering charging residents from the county library district to use their libraries because of the county system's decision to pull out of a Bay Area library cooperative called the Pacific Library Partnership.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/campbell/ci_17984585

[blondeatlast]

1. Not that unusual since PLs are funded by tax dollars.

Phoenix has been offering library cards to outlying city's residents for years but the citizens have to pay for it. Now that funding is being drastically cut we're going to see lots more of this.

[EFerrari]

2. All of those cities are in the county.

I know they have to stay open somehow but now what are all the families that can't afford this going to do? :(

[blondeatlast]

5. Sorry, I didn't knwo that. That really sucks--inter-city privileges here

are much less than $80. that' s pretty steep.

Still, I bet some :teaunsympathy" city councilman is oozing into his pants over the thought of this.

[REP]

6. City libraries

[LiberalFighter]

3. I don't see why they would offer it for free outside their district.

Unless the library is totally funded by the state it doesn't make sense.

[Occulus]

4. And DU thus slides a little FURTHER to the right

PUBLIC libraries, people. Kind of like PUBLIC parks or PUBLIC roads.

Aww, shit, who needs taxpayer-funded PUBLIC anything when we can add fees and keep the riffraff out? I WANT TO BE CHARGED A FEE EVERYTIME I TAKE A BOOK OFF THE SHELF! Fuck it- put 'em all behind glass and install a coin slot! They do it with the shitters in some places, WHY NOT for books, too?!!?

:argh:

Keep it up, everyone. So many of the "liberals" and "progressives" here would have been hard-right repubes, oh, thirty years ago.......

WHY does it seem like I'm the only one noticing this?

[REP]

7. Not CITY libraries but the COUNTY libraries

The Mountain View library will still be free, as will other CITY libraries.

[pstokely]

8. People in St Louis can get E-Books from the Kansas City library

Don't know how much longer that will last

http://www.kctv5.com/news/27666550/detail.html