One of my concerns about either remodeling or totally rebuilding the Downtown Library is that patrons will be hugely inconvenienced for years while the construction is going on. How should this inconvenience be weighed against the benefits of a new building?

As both a former employee of AADL and a former candidate for Board, I have great concern that many decisions are made without adequate input from the public. I believe that the Board and Administration may rely far too heavily on the “contact us” comment forms on the website which I believe (with no data to back this up, admittedly) that relatively few people use. So they assume all is well based on other measures such as program evalusations, usage and circ. stats., awards received, etc. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing how many Library decision-makers regularly read or heed the “Chronicle” or postings on AAdotcom, so it is important to be sure they hear from all concerned through their established channels.

I have no inside knowledge about the situation at the Library but I suspect the issue is more power than network. And wireless network would not be a good solution for the Library due to radio spectrum limits. Wired networks can have up to 1000 Mbps going to each endpoint. A wireless network has somewhere around 50-500 Mbps that must be shared among all the endpoints, including those brought in by patrons. It doesn’t scale up to the dozens of computers in use at the Library.

However, for the roughly $350 per square foot difference between renovation and rebuilding, you can do an awful lot of concrete boring and conduit pulling.

Expanding into the current employee lot seems like a reasonable alternative to a tear-down.

I’d like to hear why wireless technology is not a viable alternative to laying new cables.

What about a new building in the current location would lessen conflicts with the homeless citizens who use the library now? Would Those People not be allowed in a new building?

What would it cost to put in double-paned windows?

Many unanswered questions.

# of quiet reading rooms in those branches: 0.

Money they’re politely asking for only because they can’t squeeze it out of us without asking: $65 million.

# of quiet reading rooms after they’re done: 0, unless part of the $65 million goes to training their workers how to tell people to be quiet.

I will be voting NO until an administration shows up that cares as much about what is going on in the libraries as they do about building them.

Have you looked at a map with the library branches on it? I suggest you do. All four branches are located about 2 to 3 miles from the main library and spread evenly throughout the city. The only township with a branch physically in it is Pittsfield; and that building is just feet over the line. All of the other branches are inside the ‘beltway’.

That said, I think that there is no explaining necessary. I think we all need to focus less on borders. When we are all working together to build something of quality, in this case a library system for the 21st century, we should concentrate on that. Its specious to change the subject to which side of a line a building is built on.

So Scio kicks in over a million, but had to do with no new branch library because LAND is too expensive to build one? This one needs to be explained in light of enough funds for a multi-million dollar replacement building.