Library’s future a key for community
With continual budget shortfalls, local officials cannot
possibly make the library’s future a top priority in the short
term, but it should be toward the top of the community’s list for
the long term.
Tough fiscal circumstances actually make it a
more-than-appropriate time to take a step back and examine what
kind of library this county wants for future generations. The San
Benito County Free Library is outdated in many respects and was
built for a population of 15,000 people in the 1960s.
Library’s future a key for community
With continual budget shortfalls, local officials cannot possibly make the library’s future a top priority in the short term, but it should be toward the top of the community’s list for the long term.
Tough fiscal circumstances actually make it a more-than-appropriate time to take a step back and examine what kind of library this county wants for future generations. The San Benito County Free Library is outdated in many respects and was built for a population of 15,000 people in the 1960s.
It is time for change – of course, when the money is available, whenever that might be – so it is a good thing an honorary “Committee for the Future of the Library” kicked off more serious efforts late last week toward planning for larger populations here in the years to come. Planning takes time, and local governments have plenty of it.
As current library leadership has recognized – which leaders such as County Librarian Nora Conte have acted out to the extent possible – is that younger generations are finding newer and more technology-based reasons for using the facilities.
There is a new niche developing. From here for library leadership and other interested residents, it is a matter of figuring out precisely how to harness it.
The local library has taken many of the right steps, such as an increase to the number of Internet-based computer stations at the Fifth Street location and the launching of such gatherings as the after-school homework club. Leaders there have found clever ways to more efficiently use the available space, the little they have available.
But there is a limit, with anything.
This community, though, has a chance with this outlook on the library’s future to make this place a priority – which it should be – and really figure out how to best build and promote its resources.
Locals can examine a range of issues such as the future library’s necessary size, the possibility of a new location, ways it can partner with other community organizations or schools, and the varying methods library leadership and others can use to promote it as a vibrant community center.
As for those involved, the more the merrier. If we do it right, the library can play a largely beneficial role toward the long-term well being of Hollister and San Benito County.
