inkbluesky

ferris wheel wallpaper

Aptly the ferris wheel was invented by and named for George W. Ferris.

He built the Ferris Wheel for the 1893 World’s Fair, which was held in Chicago to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s landing in America.

Why anyone would want to celebrate that punk and one of the world’s worse navigators Columbus is beyond me, but thanks for the wheel George.

Sanctuary in the Stacks 

Across the country, our public libraries are grappling with a slew of threats: ever-shrinking budgets, closing doors, and the government’s prying eye. Yet the public’s need for libraries is greater than ever. Gone are the days of libraries as mere book lenders with a little old lady shushing from behind a desk. Today’s librarians provide essential services to their communities, acting as key social agents by playing the role of emergency first-responder, social worker, accountant, friend to the homeless, and babysitter to latchkey teens.

Some of these roles librarians welcome, some they don’t. Undoubtedly, though, ongoing funding cuts to US libraries will be a major blow not just to bookworms, but also to the many who turn to libraries in their hour of need.

Amid the chaos of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, for example, storm victims flooded local libraries to fill out insurance forms, plead with FEMA, and email relatives and friends. In Florida’s Pasco County, library workers handle the overflow calls to emergency hotline phone banks. As Ellen Perlman reports for Governing, libraries also assist disaster workers, often providing much-needed wireless services and safe, secure headquarters in what are typically among the most soundly built structures in any given town. Last year, reports Perlman, libraries everywhere extended their roles yet further as seniors, baffled by the cryptic Medicare Part D, sought the aid of librarians in filling out the forms.

Just a few years ago people were talking about how the internet and e-books  were making libraries obsolete. Nothing could be further from the truth. Libraries in even the smallest cities were never only about checking out books or checking facts in the Encyclopedia Britannica. They were about reference help, about guiding people to the information and resources they needed to file their taxes, do it-yourself wills, and  a stop off place for kids to stay a couple hours until their parents get home. For me for a few years I couldn’t afford all the music I wanted to buy (who can I’d own a music warehouse if I could) especially classic jazz so I checked out CD’s. Then I made a list of what would be priorities albums for my collection. I used government publications on the economy and projected job growth - which I didn’t even know existed until a librarian tipped me off. Unfortunately the local libraries don’t allow e-mail use, but I could see them making an exception during emergencies like Hurricane Katrina. That state budgets have become so squeezed that libraries and the people that need them are being short shifted is truly unfortunate.