Libraries are not repositories of books.
They are places of knowledge.
And until such time we all understand that the ‘who-needs-libraries-anymore” folks and library boosters will remain light years away from each other.
When Manteca started its last sustained and serious — although half-hearted push — to upgrade library services in 1996, a know-it-all in his late 20s boldly proclaimed at a public meeting that the Internet would make libraries obsolete by 2000. When pressed to explain, he said that Google was putting all books on the Internet so therefore libraries were destined to go the way of the dodo bird.
Not a bad analogy considering those self-absorbed 16th century expeditions bankrolled by those that wanted to make money off the “unexplored” world wiped out the easy to catch food on Mauritius Island only thought about filling their stomachs as they made their way through the Indian Ocean to plunder old, established countries.
Google et al is doing just that. Taking work done by everyone else and making money off of it and not caring whether anyone they plunder survives. It might seem like I’m digressing, but I’m not. There is a danger in not seeing the value in things that you might equate to a dodo bird because you don’t stop and think how they fit into the overall scheme.
Andrew Carnegie did not see libraries just as a place one could access books. Libraries were a place where people could lift themselves up through knowledge. It was back when education was far from being universal, high school graduates were rare, and immigrants had limited access to public schools due to the fact work they needed to survive conflicted with school hours.
Libraries also became places of enrichment to build on general education as well as a source of pleasure through recreational reading.
The need is the same today. As of 2015 there were 47 million immigrants in the United States or about 15 percent of the population.
The folks working with San Joaquin’s Strong Libraries = Strong Communities endeavor understand what’s at stake and the challenges in the culturally diverse county where we live.
Libraries are where many learn English, educate themselves, open new doors, and — with the maker movement — build new doors.
The Internet is just a tool, it’s not the entire toolbox.
That said, Manteca doesn’t need a new $30 million library.
What it needs is a library that is vibrant and as effective as possible at helping to lift people economically, culturally, and socially.
Carnegie would probably be aghast to see that most of us have the same mindset libraries should be like those that existed in 1883 when he bankrolled the first of 1,689 libraries in the United States. Carnegie was the Bill Gates of his era. Not simply because after he ruthlessly crushed the competition in the fledging steel industry that he became the symbol of philanthropy and gave away much of his wealth to help improve the lot of others, but because he understood you have to constantly adjust to enjoy success.
That means constantly learning. It means having resources available that help you grow either on your own or with the help of others to guide you.
Perhaps Manteca needs a new library building per se or take an existing building and remodel it, employ a joint venture with the school district, build a second location that is attuned to the needs of the world today that nearly 80,000 current city residents live in, or remodel and expand the current building.
What is needed needs to be based not on old boiler plates of what a library should be nor the snake oil sold by consultants. What isn’t needed is to do nothing.
The solution needs to accept the fact that in order to afford a long list of amenities identified as crucial to helping Manteca be a vibrant and culturally rich city as it expands toward 120,000 residents and beyond, may require a 3-for-1 approach.
If you believe a commercial endeavor of any consequence will ever reopen in the shuttered 105,000-square-foot Kmart building on Northgate Drive you are only fooling yourself. It is a hideous location for retail. You can’t be as far off the beaten track and still be near major streets as you can with the Kmart location. It will eventually suffer the same fate as the old Indy Electronics facility on Industrial Park Drive that has been empty now for a quarter of a century.
The Kmart building is a basic shell with plenty of parking on established Manteca Transit routes that is easily accessible by vehicle and even the Tidewater Bikeway that is just blocks away.
Manteca’s want list includes a performing arts center, a library, and a community center. The city could acquire the building and repurpose it — in stages if need be — for all three purposes.
It eliminates a couple of basic cost concerns such as buying land, being able to afford to build a facility all at once, and developing parking. It would also stop blight from taking hold.
Any discussion of implementing the $75 million plus Parks & Recreation plans needs to include a healthy dose of reality of where the huge funding shortfall not covered by growth fees will come from. And that discussion needs to include exploring alternatives that reduce costs and possibly be more effective in terms of execution.