Downtown Pensacola Library staff ready for grand-opening of expanded facility

This is what SeaOat should focus on since he seems to think actual BOOKS are a waste of time and space. This is for those who cannot afford computers and internet service at home. This is what we used for my preteen kids before we got a computer at home. Not everyone, SO, has a home of their own, much less computers and other digital devices available to them.

hallmarkgrad wrote:

2seaoat wrote:......and gosh....lets tell the truth......this is a dumping ground for parents to run a few errands as you note hardly any parents sharing in this reading time.

From the WFPL policy page: "Children under the age of 8 must be accompanied at all times by a parent, guardian, or other responsible person. Parents/caregivers must remain in the immediate vicinity of and be in visual contact with the child."

This is absolutey NOT a dumping ground, never has been and never will be.

2seaoat wrote:Thousands of kids during this same period are playing video games unsupervised, watching tv, ....

So your alternative would be to spend even MORE money creating a digital world for these same kids to still remain unsupervised rather than to create an environment that promotes reading and learning under the supervision of both parents and a librarian? I really do not understand your opposition. All you are looking at is the cost. You are totally ignoring the benefits of modern public libraries.

I am not dissing libraries....completely the opposite. As we face deep cuts in basic services the libraries always get slashed first. Operating budgets are critical to keep lean and mean. Library employees have dropped from fifty something down to the thirties.....the hours of operation have been drastically cut back, which means the majority of kids in Escambia County are going to have less opportunity to access the resources of the entire library system in fiscal 2013 than they did before this large scale project was completed. I agree that libraries are critical. They are an important community asset which any company looking to relocate to the area will check. The also will check crime rates, and poverty. How in the hell can kids fight their way up from their reality when the solution is to build monuments downtown for show, while digital utilization and the front doors of these county wide libraries are being shuttered.

I believe Hallmark only wants what is best for the community, but the scale of this library was a mistake. I listened to testimony that the meeting rooms are being utilized 11% less than previous years.....yet you build a 52k square foot monstrosity and argue you need more meeting rooms. You show a small group of 20 something people have a group read, and you want to convince me that 52k feet is necessary, when I could invite them into my living room for the same sharing of books. The problem is this is happening all over the country. Instead of intergovernmental agreements which utilize portions of new schools, and shared technology expense between school districts.....we have everybody carving out their territory, and bankrupting our public sector with systemic inefficiencies which get compounded, and now the solution is to shutter the libraries county wide, and cut staff.

Huuuuuuuugggggge Fail.

So your alternative would be to spend even MORE money creating a digital world for these same kids to still remain unsupervised

This a wrong characterization of what I am proposing. The same reading session can be accomplished with 500 children with technology as they are in their homes 5 weekdays, and do group readings on the weekend. The technology allows complete network interaction with the children while allowing the children to interact with other during the session. I have set up condo meetings on Navarre Beach with people all over the country with 50 owners who would otherwise have to travel watching video presentations, interacting with white boards , and conveyance of information. Owners talking with other owners and looking at detailed budgets. This is being done all over the corporate world. College instruction has simply gone to a higher level with these tools which are saving our university systems billions of dollars in instructional costs......yet we have a bunch of people getting all warm and fuzzy about a concept which we no longer can afford.

Sure lets all go down to the barn and talk about the pony express....lets build a bigger barn to house the horses.....lets have travel agents book all our flights and forget about modern tools to do the same......let us return to a time when only a stockbroker could make that trade....no, the problem is that across this country library science is kicking and screaming to be brought to the reality that a simple internet connection and a child has access to the world. You want to characterize my attacks as being unsympathetic to libraries....quite the contrary....across this nation libraries are the first to suffer in austerity....yet much of the damage has been self inflicted in this idea that large monstrosities are the measure of how good a library system is within a community....a moronic concept when you are shuttering your doors 33% of the time to pay for the monument....again....the same story all over the nation. We need a workable paradigm for modern libraries and if the current bureaucrats cannot see beyond self serving kingdom building.....then our children are doomed. We are talking about a 5 million dollar budget a year, and the world could be offered to children if this was not sunk in maintenance of these white elephants and the wasteful staffing of the same.

You had a chance to speak. you did not, therefore accept the results.

I did speak to the scale of this project in comments on the PNJ stories about the development of the library. I warned that this size and scale would result in operating hour and staff cut backs....was I a soothsayer.....nope....it is happening in every community where these mistakes have been made, and like keeping up with the Jones.....staff wants a shiny new vehicle to show off the community.....but it is the engine which gets you from one place to another.......we have forgotten the basics.....the very reason the library exists......you can compare it to pensions, cut backs in police and fire protection, you can talk about the advertising budget to sell Pensacola....you can even talk about the airport budget, but across America where Libraries have failed to see the future of technology and have built these huge warehouses.....they are failing in the budget debates and the doors are being shuttered. It is time to focus on the children and quit this illusion and self righteous idea that big buildings make good libraries....they simply do not.

You do realize that the funding is for 7(seven) libraries(I guess they should be branches of the main Library,) not just one?. Comments on the PNJ has not proved to be a effective way to change government policy.

WEST FLORIDA PUBLIC LIBRARY – WFPL



Main Library
239 North Spring Street
Pensacola, FL 32502
850.436.5060



Tryon Branch Library
1200 Langley Avenue
Pensacola, FL 32504



Southwest Branch Library
12248 Gulf Beach Highway
Pensacola, FL 32507
850.453.7734



Westside Branch Library
1580 W. Cervantes Street
Pensacola, FL 32501
850.595.1047


Century Branch Library
7991 N. Century Boulevard
Century, FL 32535
850.256.6217


Molino Branch Library
6450 Highway 95A
Molino, FL 32577

Opening Early 2013

Genealogy Branch Library
5740 N. 9th Avenue
Pensacola, FL 32504
850.494.7373

Yes I do.....ask the folks in century what they think about the library hours. Ask them what they think about the new monstrosity downtown Pensacola.....then ask them why the county is contributing the largest portion of the budget and their children get the shaft in the cutbacks.

It is about those very children.....and somehow people have convinced themselves big shiny buildings are libraries......they never were......with inter library borrowing.....a storefront anywhere can service a community to have access to hard copy books.....but that would be going backwards.......If you think the budgets of these libraries will not be further cut back......I have another white elephant to sell you.

No thanks. I have already bought one. Studer Stadium.....

Rock Garden? There is a rock garden in the library?

Went to the new library today. Looks nice but was a little confusing to find things. Be prepared to walk and go up and down the stairs! And someone said that the stairs won't be used much but I saw plenty of people using them.
Would like to see them get more new books there.

Mr Oats How sad it is to come here and listen to your gloom and doom after being with over 200, positive , effective leaders of the community. Many of them volunteers, only looking to improve the quality of life in the area. I will stay positive and continue my discourse with them. My family and I will enjoy the new library and I will remain a friend of the library.

Old men like SeaOat don't need a library... they know it everything already. It is our future generations that need the resource, not the old guard.

Not all kids have laptops, internet connections and/or Kindles. Disadvantaged kids need a library. Books are not going out of style.

Sure, they need to keep up with the times, with internet downloads and CD/DVD checkouts, but not all books are on digital format. You cannot put a library on a server connected to the internet and say all is good.

I have gone to the SouthWest Branch to use their computers with internet connections and I have been to local libraries probably 40 times in the last couple of years, mostly to borrow books-on-CD... so, it is not just a building to house books.

I have been to at least 3 or 4 (maybe more) public meetings at the Downtown library. That little room gets some use!

Yomama wrote:Not all kids have laptops, internet connections and/or Kindles. Disadvantaged kids need a library. Books are not going out of style....You cannot put a library on a server connected to the internet and say all is good.

I have this mental image of children sitting in front of a computer, each isolated in his own home, never sitting in circle time with their peers, never waiting patiently in line to check out a new book, never experience the delight of opening the first page of a "new" book.

Even those who have access to laptops, internet and Kindle benefit from going to the library. My grandchildren go every week. Their mother is a college librarian. While she teaches them to use all the technology that is available to them, she is also a firm believer in story time at the library and in having her children go through the process of choosing and checking out books. They are all avid readers and they all prefer books over the computer or their Kindle.

Now that is what I like to hear, Birdyback.

Nekochan wrote:

Man I'd love to have a couple of those card catalog pieces of furniture.

Ebay..............




http://www.ebay.com/itm/64-Vintage-Mid-Century-Modern-Library-Card-Catalog-3-available-Industrial-/160934105150?pt=Antiques_Furniture&hash=item25786b903e

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-LIBRARY-CARD-CATALOG-STYLE-TV-ENTERTAINMENT-CABINET-MEDIA-CENTER-STAND-/281032010423?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D21%26pmod%3D230869679473%26ps%3D54

Nekochan wrote:Rock Garden? There is a rock garden in the library?

Yep,Neko, its about 8'x8' area filled with smooth oval stones that have been in a lapidary of some sort. It is like a Zen garden. It is impressive. I have no complaint about it.