Building A Brighter Future: The Case for a New Library
- The Library hosts 800-900 visitors a day, yet has just one single-stall bathroom for adult patrons. Conduit, air ducts, and water pipes are exposed and unattractive.
- No more children can be accommodated at popular programs such as Storytime, so the Library cannot promote these programs as they would like.
- Teens make do with 75 square feet of space sandwiched between the stacks. They have few programs specific to their needs and no place for individual or group study.
- There aren’t enough computers for adults or children, and the building cannot be wired to today’s technology standards.
- The Library’s 128,000 volumes are housed in space designed to hold 45,000. There is no room to grow.
- The Marin Literacy Program is headquartered in the Library, yet for lack of space, tutors and students meet in hallways or wherever space can be found that day.
- The building is outdated and inefficient. It cannot house modern cost-saving methods such as automatic sorting and routing equipment. The Library cannot meet Title 24 energy efficiency standards, and thus energy, and money, is wasted each year.
- Staff desks are squeezed into every available space. Boxes and book carts block windows, corridors, and shelves, creating dark, crowded spaces.
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Long Overdue,
a 2006 study report, found that, more often than other public entities, the public gives its libraries an “A” and acknowledges the many benefits of a free public library system.
But that same public is often unaware of our Library’s problems and limited resources.
These numbers tell the story.
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Annually, our Library spends $39.87 per capita; the average expenditure for other Marin libraries is $85.01.
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The number of materials available to our patrons each year per capita is the lowest in Marin at 2.5 items.
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Each full-time staff serves 3,524 patrons a year; staff at other Marin libraries average 1,579.
Find all 2008 California Library Statistics at www.library.ca.gov/lds/librarystats.html;
Find Long OverDue – a Fresh Look at Public and Leadership Attitudes About LIBRARIES in the 21st Century at www.publicagenda.org/files/pdf/Long_Overdue.pdf
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The cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. - Oscar Wilde
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Out of Space
