Comments on: Library Board: Invest in Current Building?

By: Jack F.

Jack F. — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:54:11 +0000

It’s more of the Ann Arbor public body philosophy of ‘Oh We Have Money Let’s Spend It NOW’ mentality. Retrofiting and remodeling the current building is what should be done and if we have money to build new building after several years then we need to return some of those dollars to the public.

By: Jim Rees

Jim Rees — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:49:13 +0000

The capital outlay budget was reduced from $253,343 last year to $190,000 this year. Yet the board has known for at least three years that the HVAC system was going to require some outlay beyond the AHU that was replaced last year (it’s in the Providence report). So why was this expenditure not budgeted, and why is Stearns uncomfortable with it?

By the way, a 110,000 square foot building is going to require something around $200,000 a year in maintenance costs. The chiller failure is not evidence that the building is “falling down.” It’s a regular maintenance expense.

By: Ann

Ann — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:34:22 +0000

The next generations are not growing up with the quaint feelings of ‘there’s just something about paper’ that we have. They have no nostalgia to tell them that tangible media is better in some unquantifiable way.

Besides, if you use digital downloads, you don’t have to touch the sticky library books. Ew!

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:48:58 +0000

You may or may not be right, who knows? I hope you are, but publishers are certainly in a tizzy about whether they’ll survive. The point is, a new building is a substantial bet on things being a certain way, whatever you build, and at a time when there’s this much uncertainty, well, to me it makes sense to wait a bit and see if things settle out.

(Surely I’m not the only person to have gone in the Pittsfield or Mallett’s Creek branches and thought “But where are all the books?”)

By: David

David — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:52:30 +0000

I don’t think electronic media will ever supplant the tangible, printed book. They said the same thing about radio and television and it never happend.

Certainly e-books have taken a nice chunk of the market, but it’s all evening out.

There simply is no substitute for tangilbe media. And I’m not an old fart saying this LOL

With that said, I believe the current library is insufficient and has been outdated for several years. Ann Arbor is a bastion of intellecutalism and should have a very nice, if not world class, library.

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 22:10:12 +0000

As much as I hate to admit it, David has a good point. We’re at a point of rapid change in the nature of all media. This may not be the best time to commit a large amount of money 30 years out on something which might be obsolete or fundamentally different in 10. The new branches, as spectacular as they are as spaces, already feel a little bit superfluous.

By: David

David — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:34:48 +0000

Delaying building replacement or relocation may be best in the long term. In the years to come, borrowing via e-reader will eventually become the norm. A future library will be able to concentrate more of its energy on unique media events and special editions of artistic merit rather than holding physical copies of hundreds of thousands of novels,biographies, and texts having ever changing popularity.

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:27:40 +0000

@Ann I’m not sure where you spend time at the Downtown library but “cold” is the last word I would ever use to describe anyplace in that building. Branches – perhaps, but not the downtown library. If you have ever attended a program in the basement hot and sweltering is a better description.

By: Ann

Ann — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 03:56:53 +0000

Funny the library always feels colder than it needs to be. Even colder than might be considered reasonable 20 years ago.

By: Prue Rosenthal

Prue Rosenthal — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:54:41 +0000

In her excellent report Mary made one mistake concerning the problem of the AADL chillers. Quote “Carola Stearns asked for the rationale to buy a new one, rather than replace it, given the cost as well as the uncertain plans for the downtown building. ” she asked about RENOVATION vs. replacement.
Great report otherwise. Prue Rosenthal