It is about time I introduce you to the Impromptu Librarian who can be found just below the Baldwin Library in the library listing on the right side of this page. Clicking the red Impromptu link in the previous sentence takes you to a post she wrote for her blog on April 9th 2007, titled No Card For You. In it she and another person are discussing the Michigan Supreme Court Decision in which City of Bloomfield Hills resident George Goldstone sought the right to purchase a library card from the Bloomfield Township Public Library. In her blog court documents are read aloud which appear in shaded in blue on the blog page. The Impromptu Librarian's real name is Mary Beth Sancomb Moran. On her blog page her comments,to the reading of the court documents appear in unshaded black type. Here on this page for those who are too busy to read her April 2007 post, I have taken some of Mary Beth Sancomb Moran's comments that are self explanatory and printed them below in green on black.
Uhmmm….huh? Refuses to sell him a library card? I can understand refusing to give him a card, if he’s not entitled to it, but refusing to sell him one?
On June 13th a comment to her No Card For You post. referred to a letter from City of Bloomfield Hills resident Mr.Larry Neal to the Macomb Daily. Mr. Neal is by profession a librarian and director the Clinton Macomb Library in Macomb County. The Impromptu Librarian replied..
He does have a point – but then, I imagined that there was one. Unfortunately, the library’s materials make them look like they’re withholding access, and being cranky about it, besides. The point is made in Neal’s letter that there is a cost to having a library, and I couldn’t agree more. However, if residents from Town B don’t want to build a library, and it costs the residents of Town A $100 per person to have one, then I would posit that a library card for Town B Resident should cost $100.
Uhmmm….huh? Refuses to sell him a library card? I can understand refusing to give him a card, if he’s not entitled to it, but refusing to sell him one?
But, boy, this makes the library look bad. They talk a lot about this being between the township and the city, but the bottom line is that the library looks like the mean guy in this fight. Wasn’t there a way to allow the city’s residents to use the library until all this got sorted out? So you charge $50 for a card. Or even $100. At least people could use the library.
Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be about?
I know funding is important….but yikes, people.
He does have a point – but then, I imagined that there was one. Unfortunately, the library’s materials make them look like they’re withholding access, and being cranky about it, besides. The point is made in Neal’s letter that there is a cost to having a library, and I couldn’t agree more. However, if residents from Town B don’t want to build a library, and it costs the residents of Town A $100 per person to have one, then I would posit that a library card for Town B Resident should cost $100.
My concern was that Town B Residents weren’t even able to BUY a library card, and so there were folks who didn’t have access to a public library. And that’s a shame.
The mind boggling thing here especially for Oakland Country residents is that Impromptu Librarian believes that Library's and Librarians have a function and purpose which is to put books and the wisdom they contain in the hands of people. She does not believe that the library system as we know it will crumble into dust if library cards are sold to those who wish to buy them. How Refreshing !
I think your will find the other posts from the Impromptu Librarian just as interesting. Her most current post was"Decades" is about 9-11. The one before that takes to you to the Beloit College Mindset 2011, or how college class of 2015 might think. For example Ferris Bueller and Sloane Peterson could be their parents.
I think your will find the other posts from the Impromptu Librarian just as interesting. Her most current post was"Decades" is about 9-11. The one before that takes to you to the Beloit College Mindset 2011, or how college class of 2015 might think. For example Ferris Bueller and Sloane Peterson could be their parents.
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