To the Editor:
In the last month or so, we each wrote letters protesting the closing of Branch II of the Bayonne Public Library. Ironically, over the same period of time, “The New York Times” has published two articles (March 26 and April 2, 2009) about the public’s increasing need of libraries for help in job searches, resume writing, interviewing techniques, and for free entertainment in the form of CDs, DVDs, children’s programs and cultural events. This phenomenon is nationwide. California, Illinois, Massachusetts and Virginia as well as New York City and New Jersey are reporting double digit increasing in patrons, taxing librarians to the limit.
Bayonne’s branch libraries, situated as they are at the farthest ends of town, have been serving those neighborhoods for over 50 years. Yet, although we recognize our community’s needs, our elected officials chose to take away those very resources from the citizens who really depend on them.
Every penny does count in tight times; but, the old expression “penny wise and pound foolish” applies here. Perhaps we might think of the costs of the library branches as very sound investments to improve the lives of our most vulnerable citizens: the unemployed, the elderly, the impoverished and the young.
JOYCE NESTLE & ROSEMARY PARLAVECCHIO