Quote:
The St. Louis County Library Board recently voted to ask for a six-cent tax hike on the current 16-cent per $100 property valuation, for the purpose of tearing down and rebuilding the county library’s headquarters.
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Library District Director Charles Pace said the library was “reaching the end of its design life.” Pace said libraries of the future needed to be more like community centers “as opposed to being a big reading room with endless rows of shelves.”
Wasn't that what libraries are designed for? But the library board doesn’t think that is functional anymore. Maybe it should put in some basketball courts and spas?
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But residents should not be paying a library tax to build community centers. The library district needs instead to tear down the buildings it has, and start planning to sell off the buildings, and land, and go out of business when there are no longer ink-on-paper books.
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Just what is the role of libraries in the digital age - books? all media? student centers? job centers? tax centers? community centers? or all of it? And if it's all of it, then shouldn't the separate government agencies that currently perform these functions be combined to better utilize tax dollars?