Not everyone is happy with the new library:
Really now, what is it with SCVers hatred of large buildings? Is it that we distrust anything with staircases and elevators, or what? Do big buildings remind us of the bad places we escaped from before coming to the SCV? Are large buildings like fences that prevent SCVers from straddling their old saddle under the western skies or preclude them from wandering over yonder till they see the mountains rise? I've heard for months both online and off that the Newhall library is too big and I just don't get it.
If you go by California library standards, we're supposed to have .5 sq. ft. of library space per resident. By itself, that would mean the Newhall Library should be about 97,500 sq. ft., almost 1/4th larger than it is (that's if you count by the City's population after the recent annexations). I'm not certain how large Valencia and Canyon Country are, but the new building strikes me as right-sized and I like that it's a big anchor to all of Main Street and sits next to two historical buildings in what could be a great civic square.
The reader continues:
And instead of wanting better retirement security for themselves, the public looks at the certainty of public workers' pensions and says, "Hey, that's unfair! Public sector workers should have the same shitty and uncertain retirement security I do!"
Our City, for better and worse, sidesteps those thorny issues altogether. They don't directly hire bus drivers and they don't directly hire librarians either. This makes them fast, agile, and performance-oriented, qualities which most residents would rate as really important.
And yet, during the LACO days, we had several qualified, highly-educated and publicly-employed librarians living and working in the SCV. These are also qualities library patrons rated as important. A few of those locally-employed professionals made the switch to LSSI, many didn't.
So we lost something there, and in the most undemocratic way possible. And then we raised hell about it and the Mayor lost her seat over it.
The bottom line is this: The libraries now truly belong to Santa Clarita, which is one benefit of the takeover. LSSI is the caretaker...for now. But who knows what the future may bring?
Another reader says the reason the Old Town Newhall library looks like it carries fewer materials is because of the layout of the floorplan:
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Nehwall Library opens, ctd
My cynical two-cent's worth: The Santa Clarita City Council built this edifice to be the jewel in its crown, to tower over its attempt to fabricate an "Old Town," a monument to the councilmembers and their self-importance as civic leaders.
Its massive size also serves to distract those who might otherwise want to know what is behind the curtain.
If you go by California library standards, we're supposed to have .5 sq. ft. of library space per resident. By itself, that would mean the Newhall Library should be about 97,500 sq. ft., almost 1/4th larger than it is (that's if you count by the City's population after the recent annexations). I'm not certain how large Valencia and Canyon Country are, but the new building strikes me as right-sized and I like that it's a big anchor to all of Main Street and sits next to two historical buildings in what could be a great civic square.
The reader continues:
Because it's not really a "public" library. It may be a big, shiny, new civic building, and the people may use it, but the library inside it is still run by a private corporation in Maryland, not the city or the county. Oversight by the city? Maybe. Maybe not. Where does our money go? Maryland. Not Santa Clarita. Into private pockets, not public services.I'm sympathetic to this argument as any long time reader of the site will know. I support public employees. I think they get dumped on unfairly for the actions & abuses of a few bad apples. They're an easy target for the talk radio types who don't, or refuse to, understand how public sector employment developed the way it did.
Privatization doesn't shrink government powers, it shrinks what is intended to be responsive to us and our needs. It is deliberate. And it threatens our Democracy.
Yeah, it's me, the anti-privatization nudge, and most likely the only one in the entire SCV and AV. At least with the library I have a choice about not using privatized public services.
And instead of wanting better retirement security for themselves, the public looks at the certainty of public workers' pensions and says, "Hey, that's unfair! Public sector workers should have the same shitty and uncertain retirement security I do!"
Our City, for better and worse, sidesteps those thorny issues altogether. They don't directly hire bus drivers and they don't directly hire librarians either. This makes them fast, agile, and performance-oriented, qualities which most residents would rate as really important.
And yet, during the LACO days, we had several qualified, highly-educated and publicly-employed librarians living and working in the SCV. These are also qualities library patrons rated as important. A few of those locally-employed professionals made the switch to LSSI, many didn't.
So we lost something there, and in the most undemocratic way possible. And then we raised hell about it and the Mayor lost her seat over it.
The bottom line is this: The libraries now truly belong to Santa Clarita, which is one benefit of the takeover. LSSI is the caretaker...for now. But who knows what the future may bring?
Another reader says the reason the Old Town Newhall library looks like it carries fewer materials is because of the layout of the floorplan:
The OTN library has a capacity for over 130,000 items (books, cd’s, dvd’s) and the shelves are well stocked with some room for growth. The reason the collection look much larger at, say Canyon Country Library is because Canyon Country has everything on one floor in a rectangular building with an open floor plan. At OTN the children’s materials are on the first floor on the west side, teen materials are on the first floor on the east side, and adult fiction and non-fiction are on the second floor. So, unlike Canyon Country at OTN there isn’t one vast “sea” of shelves so you can’t “size up” the collection in one glance, but each age group their own distinct area within the library.
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