There is a fight brewing in Omaha. The group ideas4omaha has taken out a full page ad in the Omaha World Herald. The ad says “the days of the neighborhood library is over”. It basically states that books are cheap enough for the public to buy on their own, the internet will solve all problems, and tax-payers already pay for school libraries (not here in Michigan). This group even claims that the high school libraries in Omaha rival university libraries. I have over 1,000,000 volumes, over 350 databases and a budget over $12 million. Does their high school match that?
My questions are does the public of Omaha want anyone to have access to the schools? Do they think school libraries have materials for adults?
This is a crazy idea! I think that these people would be up-in-arms when their schools have a variety of older men walking around looking for ‘books’.
The Information Activist Librarian 