The voters of Jackson County have overwhelmingly defeated the levy that would have reopened their public libraries.By a large margin the citizens of Jackson county refused to raise their property taxes to ensure the functioning of a public library system.From the Save Our Libraries website: A Dark Day...Thank you to all who voted to support Jackson County Libraries. The failure of ballot measure 15-75 marks a dark day in the history of our county. Nevertheless, our citizens and library supporters can be proud of a campaign filled with honesty, passion, and courage; a campaign that told the truth on behalf...
The EPA Library Crisis Returns
On April 26th Congress sent a letter to the EPA to check in on them. They wanted to follow up and make sure that they are complying with their "commitment not to close any additional EPA libraries and not to dispose of any additional EPA materials"Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a non-profit national alliance of local state and federal resource professionals and the premier watchdog group on this issue, issued a press release on May 2 titled "EPA Quietly Resumes Dismantling Library System,"They cite an 'interim policies' document released by the EPA on April 10th which lays out procedures...
A Little Light Shines On The Libraries of Jackson County
Now that The New York Times has picked up the story the odds have increased that this nightmare is closer to ending. The exposure can do nothing but help the cause.William Yardley's piece Timber (and Its Revenues) Decline and Libraries Suffer addresses the ongoing tragedy in this Southern Oregon County which closed all 15 of its libraries due to lack of government funding back in early April.On May 15th residents of the county head to the poles to raise their property taxes so they can reopen the libraries. A similar measure last November was rejected by the voters and "experts...
The Dark Ages Officially Return to Jackson County
"China has libraries. Third-world countries have libraries. Prisons have libraries...Now we don't have libraries." Joe Henry of Medford, Oregon.Welcome to day 1 of:The Jackson County Tragedy: A community without a library.As promised, on April 7th, the Jackson County Library system in Southern Oregon has shut down its entire library system.The "15 branches will remain shuttered indefinitely because of a budget shortfall, the largest such shutdown in the nation's history."What if you still have a book checked out? "The fines will continue to accrue at 20 cents per day per item...If someone gets too many fines, we will turn them over...
Southern Oregon County to Shut Down Entire Library System
In what seems like a surreal event the entire library system of Jackson County, Oregon is on the brink of closure. Their funding runs out April 7th and if nothing is done between now and then it will be the largest library closure in U.S. history. "I wish we could call FEMA; this feels like a natural disaster to me" says the county's interim library director Ted Stark.The 15 libraries that serve this rural community have lost $7 million in federal funding this year or nearly 80 percent of the system's budget and the Jackson County residents voted down a...