Quote:
Originally Posted by twobits
Reminds me of a line I saw in a show (fictional) where a fancy secret mililtary based was being show. Someone made a comment about this not showing up in the budget and the guide replied 'You don't really think we are buying $500 hammers do you?".
Pretty sure the NSA budget is still off the record even though it is no longer a complete secret. Large parts of the budget are hidden, or at least merged into very large more general categories. In the case of tax funded libraries, I imagine you could get it if you pressed hard enough (FOIA or some such maybe).
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I think that line was from Independence Day....can't remember for sure but is might have been Judd Hirsch who said it.
Financial records of all publicly funded institutions are open to anyone who asks for them. And remember we are dealing with city, county or maybe even state institutions, not federal. And there would be no valid reason to deny the information. Not sure it's worth the hassle but if really interested all I would need to do is ask a buddy of mine's wife who was our mayor for about 10-12 yrs. Our last mayor I knew dropped deal a couple years ago out of the blue so he would be more difficult to ask. And I grew up with the kids of half the city counsel so it's not like it would be too hard to ask and get the details. It's one nice thing about small towns. We all know each other...hahahaha...but this sort of thing is not some sort of national security matter fer goodness sakes! And we are entitled to know how the funds are spent. I think we all just want to know how it works more than anything else.
I still think what needs done is to reinvent the whole library. Still keep the research aspect of it, but also open part of it into a more social environment where people can get together, maybe have some sort of small business coffer bar sort of thing (no Starbucks or what not, just a small town mom 'n pop sort of thing). A solid kids section is a must and regular reader clubs/groups. But that all takes money and, well, that's very difficult to obtain from cities these days, especially for something I am certain well over 50% of people have never used and really don't understand. But I sense it's time for the library to evolve, at least on the small town level.