Richard Rider, a local libertarian, called the new library “a monument to an era that is ending — a structure that in a few years will have little more utility value than a Pharaoh’s pyramid in Egypt. The only difference is that the library will have high operating costs — the pyramids need no such annual funding.”
–UT San Diego article “New library: Is this monument necessary?”
By Joe Flynn
Odd isn’t it? The self professed “cheerleaders” for San Diego preview the grand opening of the new library with this article puffed up with a quote from San Diego’s Dr. No, Richard Rider, libertarian. I wanted to get the spelling right, but after reading his remarks no one will mistake him for a librarian.
I loved his analogy though, saying that in a few years the library will have little more utility than the Pyramids of the Pharaohs. We should be so lucky. Perhaps he missed some of the traveling exhibits of the Egyptian treasures from the Pyramids, or the frequent specials and documentaries that follow the continuing explorations.
Many San Diegans worked long and hard with countless donations of time and money necessary to bring the new library to fruition. And the new library offers something for everyone and that does cost money. Andrew Carnegie and his free public libraries were just a jump start; since then we have had to pay for our own libraries. And we pay for things as a society that we do not always personally use because we believe we benefit when the community benefits. Many of us may not often use our parks or beaches or schools but we still pay for them for others. Why? The inscription over the entrance to the Civic Center on Harbor Drive says it best, “The Noblest Motive is the Public Good.” And in few places is this more evident than in libraries in general and the new downtown library in particular.
I feel sorry for those who say that the electronic age has made books obsolete. Have they never found a book that they truly treasured, read and re-read, and kept it even if they knew its tattered pages by heart? I have many well loved books that I treasure, but I have yet to curl up with or caress a Kindle. Great for filing, but without the heart and soul of a book.
Don’t get me wrong, I welcome the electronic age. I welcome it in much the same way drivers welcome mass transit — to get those other drivers out of the way. But in the end electronic devices are just that, electronic devices. But a library has real books, and real librarians, who will not rest until they find that book or reference question you are looking for.
So, yes, this library, this monument to learning, is a necessary ingredient in our quality of life.
Editor’s Note: Don’t Miss the New Central Library Celebration Saturday September 28
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Richard Rider reads 3 books; Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and his own newsletter.
Bob Dorn: Thanks for making my day!
Whoopee! The day I’ve been waiting for. San Diego just made a major step in becoming a world class city with the opening of the new library. Now we can join San Francisco, Denver and others with an up to date, modern central library. I’ll definitely be there.
Librarians help you find the stuff that is not in Google.
Peter- glad that you reminded people that despite the assumptions otherwise, everything is not on Google.
The money to build this pretentious building would have been much better served replacing and improving branch libraries. This has little to do about the electronic age or books It is about access. How long does it take to travel to this pretty building from San Ysidro? or Skyline? It takes time, gas, transportation, parking or someone to provide that to you if you are a kid or don’t drive.
Books have been and will continue to be delivered to a branch libraries for use. Who really benefited from this structure? It was a stelth way to spend taxes under the guise of Redevelopment for downtown.
Nothing about an “iconic” building makes a city world-class. That comes from how real people live within their city. So now we have an ugly ediface with little staff and not serving those with the greatest need.
Debbie- branch libraries will never have the floor space to accommodate all of the materials in the New Main library. If San Ysidro were to become the repository of the one set of City Directories, residents will still need to drive or take transit to that location. And those directories may not serve the needs of that particular community. Branches hold popular materials and materials that reflect the interests and informational needs of their respective communities. It would be a waste of space in my City Heights branch to keep a 1927 guidebook to Italy, but the New Main has a copy to meet specific research needs.
The New Main is the only patent depository south of Orange County.
Should the branch libraries receive support, new facilities if needed? Of course they should. It is not an either/or situation. The New Main, like the old Central Library serves all of the branches and all of the residents.
Anna, I don’t disagree with the space concerns. However a 1927 guidebook to Italy could easily be housed in a warehouse to be sent out when requested.
As it stands, the central library space is wasted most of the time as the open hours are abysmal.
Downtown needed a branch library not an ode to ineqity.
I love to read your postings. I hope you are doing well!
Debbie- you are right- the central library hours are abysmal. We need to change that too.
I’m always happy to read your comments Debbie, glad to know that you are still out there and still speaking out on so many important issues. ;-)
I agree with you Anna. Libraries are so much more than just repositories of books – which is why both a strong branch system, and a good central library are valuable. Libraries are community spaces, places for people to get online, performance spaces, collections of people who are information retrieval specialists, in this particular instance a High School, etc. etc. If possible, it is better to have that 1927 Italian Guidebook, rather than the having to wait a few days to have it shipped from a warehouse. Although if you are willing to wait, a great local resource is the San Diego Circuit – UCSD, USD, SDSU, CS-San Marcos, the County Public Libraries, and the City Public Libraries will all send books to one another, free to their patrons.
I happen to have discovered a 1977 guidebook to Italia in my garage which I am cleaning
with the help of a highly organized young woman who encourages me to throw it out. No dice. Instead we are putting it in a box with a bunch of other ancient travel materials and sealing it up for my kids to pitch when I have shuffled off this mortal coil. Or keep, if they wish. A modest home version of the welcome New Main.
Back in 2004, when I was searching for a way to stop the San Diego Unified Superintendent Alan Bersin from closing (and probably selling the site) our local elementary school, Crown Point, I went downtown to the Central Library. Telling the librarians I was looking for the district’s policy on closing schools, they guided me to the microfilm records of school district meetings. There we found the policy which Mr. Bersin was violating, a specific timeline for the consideration of closing schools. This discovery saved the school, and a newly elected School Board made it official. Crown Point is now a flourishing music magnet and attractive local elementary public school in Pacific Beach, and a community asset.
Libraries, librarians and the Big Enchilada – the Downtown Central Library – are a valuable community resource! NOT a dinosaur or irrelevant.
It will be a l-o-n-g time, if ever, before many (most?) of those kind of records go online.