Opinion: Opening The City Library 24/7

There was an article a couple weeks ago on lj.libraryjournal.com about how the city is in talks to keep the Public Library open on a 24/7 basis. If this were to happen it would be the first public library in the country to offer such a service, according to a KSL report. However, it seems that the overall consensus from the public is that the city counsel's decision to move forward with the 2-year pilot project is rushed. Ultimately though people that disapprove the move to keep the library open are worried about the unknown effect it would have on downtown community.

Personally I believe this is a great idea. Why not?

More Homeless People - That's a good thing!

The library was designed to be a resource for all people, including all walks of life, that rely on it. How many times have you seen a pan handler on Main Street and said underneath your breath, " why don't you go get a job?" or " isn't there something better you could do?" well now they can. Administrators would plan to design specialty programs for the night time crowd, possibly even workshops to find work or learn a new skill online.

Other people are worried that the library would turn into a homeless shelter; an area smitten with crime and cop cars. But police have been involved in the discussion process which means that these issues will be mitigated the best they can. I think we should give people every bit of confidence to help themselves if they want to.

Many of Today's Young Professionals are Self Taught

The library is more relevant now than it ever was - Cable internet and TV is expensive. Students are poor and lazy which doesn’t help very much either. But the library opening 24/7 is a chance to make something out of it…

There are so many resources online to learn things that it really gives a liberal arts degree a run for it's money. I've heard stories of people earning well respected engineering degrees only to fall back into unemployment because they are missing functional experience, or neglected to join the right clubs. Public libraries can fill the gap by providing free internet. Individuals can find jobs in public relations, marketing, IT, etc. solely by learning the ability to teach themselves without formal classes. The theme here I'm hitting on the head is opportunities.

Allow People to Discover New Ideas Offline

If we want a more thoughtful, educated, and enlightened community as a whole we should be giving people of all schedules the ability to take part. For sure someone could read a tablet at home, or watch a documentary on TV but it doesn't have the same effect as coming to the library. Studies have shown that reading actual books versus ebooks foster better reading retention.

Also, similar to a coffee shop one can share likeminded ideas with others and get excited about new topics they never knew existed. It's likely that a portion of the night owl coffee shop crowd would migrate to the library just to be closer to the source of free information.

In conclusion I feel that a 24/7 Library could benefit the community immensely. The proposed plan would run for 2 years to see how well it worked. In my opinion the possible pros outweigh the benefits on this one folks.

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Originally there was a vote scheduled to take place on December 9th, 2014 but due to the need to have more planning in place library administration asked for the vote to be rescheduled for sometime in January of 2015. We'll be sure to keep you updated on developments as well.

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