AFS Cinema
Why Spend $90 Million on a New Library?
RECEIVED Wed., Oct. 25, 2006
Dear Editor,
Why is Austin proposing to spend $90 million to construct a new library at this time? I've always loved libraries, but in a time when vastly more information is accessible using a device you can carry in one hand than can ever be contained in any library, why are we constructing a library suitable for the last century? Surely 21st-century libraries will do more than provide Internet access for the indigent and sleeping space for the homeless. Wouldn't it make more sense to wait a few years until a clearer vision for whatever that mission is to be emerges before we spend all that money?
Why is Austin proposing to spend $90 million to construct a new library at this time? I've always loved libraries, but in a time when vastly more information is accessible using a device you can carry in one hand than can ever be contained in any library, why are we constructing a library suitable for the last century? Surely 21st-century libraries will do more than provide Internet access for the indigent and sleeping space for the homeless. Wouldn't it make more sense to wait a few years until a clearer vision for whatever that mission is to be emerges before we spend all that money?
David Horton
[Editor's note: While Prop. 6 will provide funds to begin planning a new library now, the monies will not be spent until late in the seven-year bond cycle, after issues such as those raised have been fully explored and addressed in a new building design.]