Largest library closure in U.S. looms

From San Francisco Chronicle:

The 15 libraries serving this rural forest community lost $7 million in federal funding this year -- nearly 80 percent of the system's budget.

Now, not long after all 15 branches were rebuilt or remodeled, every one will be shuttered in what's being called the largest library shutdown in the United States. The crisis in southern Oregon can be traced not only to changing funding priorities on Capitol Hill, but also to crooked railroad deals in the Wild West, a spotted owl and a shrinking timber harvest.

Struggling library systems have come close to extinction in Salinas, Merced County and Niagara Falls, N.Y., but they pulled back from the brink, said Leonard Kniffel, editor of American Libraries magazine.

Nothing, he said, compares to the scope and severity of the pending closure in Jackson County, where about 100 library employees will be laid off....

"I wish we could call FEMA; this feels like a natural disaster to me," said Ted Stark, interim library director for Jackson County.

"Libraries are so much more than just libraries in rural areas. This is where all the town meetings are held, where all the kids come after school, where everything -- everything -- happens," he said. Indeed, today;s libraries have evolved from merely loaning out books to providing Internet access, reading hour for babies, community meeting centers and art galleries.