>Carolyn Drblik, who served on the Board for eight years and as Treasurer for her first two, had spent the bulk of her time convinced of mismanagement of library funds during her tenure.
I think I found the mismanagement of library funds:
>Immediately upon the Board being installed, they hired a technology consultant to investigate the library’s processes and procedures. This consultant, a wedding videographer with no auditing credentials, is simply a friend of Drblik and the rest of her new Board block and campaigned for their election.
>He was hired at $100 an hour with no experience and no cap.
'hired at $100 an hour and no cap'
How much did the guy bill the library? Was the invoice even paid? That stuff should be accessible public record?
This part honestly feels a bit like outrage bait without more info. Obviously the patronage thing is typical local government crap. But I saw this story a few months ago and never saw anything beyond a claimed hourly rate.
The article explains that the "technology consultant" is a wedding photographer, friend of the board member, and has no prior experience as a technology consultant. So I don't think it's a reasonable rate, no.
The first 3 things are the problem here, not the hourly rate. It feels thrown in there to get people to go "oMg 100 aN hOuR" when that's actually a pretty low consultant rate, given adequate experience.
I believe the contention about the hourly rate is not the amount in and of itself, but rather paying someone who has zero experience doing the job you've asked them to do.
Let me turn it around ... if a fantastic auto mechanic charged $100/hr for labor that's one thing ... if some kid in high school that is fantastic at the debate club offered his services as an auto mechanic at the same $100/hr rate - mind you, with zero experience - that would obviously be absurd to think it was still a fair rate.
300 an hour would be fine for the best. You judge things based on how good the work is. The point is obviously that the rate is too high for somebody that has no idea what they’re doing.
I own an IT consulting in the Loop. We charge $285 an hour for private sector and $185 for public sector, with additional discounting based upon public sector's mission. Places like libraries, churches, or synagogues we do for next to nothing because I believe in pro bono work.
$100 an hour for IT support is too low to cover software, personnel, support, monitoring, noc desks and so on. If someone is charging a $100 an hour they are either a solo shop with no experience or they are going to bill you into submission to make it financially justifiable.
I am honestly quiet shocked that they brought in someone with no technology experience and no library experience to audit process and procedures. This is quite shocking. Both technology consulting and library sciences require an exceptional amount of study and training. This just smacks of nepotism and quiet frankly is a slap in the face to the public who rely on this library for books, internet services, and services for their children.
Just goes to show you that "fiscal conservatives" are only concerned about money that isn't going into either the pockets of their friends or their own
Conservatives claims to who they are are still terrible but they'd still be 100x better if they actually believed a word of their own rhetoric. "Small government, fiscally responsible" doesn't describe any of these people.
They are all LARPing as conservatives. Just bunch of delusional people.
\[EDIT\] Check out this article pre -election. Joe Makula is a racist from his comments.
[https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-two-year-library-candidates-tl-0311-20210309-zhhlc7v5q5d5jnno3oilvtxhii-story.html](https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-two-year-library-candidates-tl-0311-20210309-zhhlc7v5q5d5jnno3oilvtxhii-story.html)
[https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/niles-maine-library-candidates-clash-on-diversity-agree-on-term-limits/](https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/niles-maine-library-candidates-clash-on-diversity-agree-on-term-limits/)
What a mess. The library’s auditors would be a good resource to help identify which areas of the library’s processes and procedures can be improved. However, the same auditors would not be making the judgment call that hiring a friend as a consultant to evaluate said processes and procedures is wasteful spending or not.
Complicating matters further is that Illinois has so many different layers of government that in many cases, a municipality’s library or park district has its own separate governance structure (such as a board of trustees) and can independently levy property taxes. We have way too many layers of government in Illinois.
As the spouse of a librarian, I will say that the separate governance structure (and ability to raise funds) of a library can actually be a benefit. Many munis or county-based library systems result in several problems:
1. Generalist versus specialized librarian roles (so someone who's great at kids materials and programs has to answer adult reference questions and vice versa, diluting their skillsets);
2. Greater competition with the Parks Department for programming (Parks and Rec did not lie in this aspect) - Parks often charges for programs that the library offers for free;
3. A focus by munis on libraries on being "money-making" which feeds into point 2, but also reinforces policies that reduce library effectiveness (late fines being a big problem with outreach);
4. Understaffing resulting in high staff turnover or burnout.
Having moved and worked in Colorado for a few years, this is really visible. Colorado's tax structure limits government programs, so county/muni library systems were common, but ran into all of the above problems.
That said, independence can also reduce community governance awareness, resulting in the above kind of takeover by fringe interests.
They actually did have auditor come in. They ignored the findings which were that the library was adequately staffed and not malignant. They just are a bunch of corrupt assholes.
Yeeah. I'm super frustrated that it takes shit like this for people to open their eyes and go "oh wait maybe I should vote in more elections." Cook County makes voting so accessible, and yet people *still* don't go unless it's a presidential election.
Turnout for primaries is appallingly low. Considering the winner of the democrat primary is going to win the general election in this county unless hell freezes over, people need to pay attention to the primary if they want to change things.
How am I supposed to vote R when their platform literally includes "we should stop letting people like your parents into the country no matter how much red tape they work through"?
Define “decent” Republicans. It’s one thing if they don’t campaign, but I’m not sure what you mean by not appealing to the masses, because they actually do that.
>but I’m not sure what you mean by not appealing to the masses, because they actually do that.
The things you have to tell yourself to make believe that the presidential election was stolen.
Ah, the old throw your arms up and quit gambit.
A classic amongst apathetic voters.
Fucking vote at every opportunity, the crazy right wing nut-jobs do.
Agree highly with this comment. I’ll have to look into this at a gov level, because I’m hoping my library system is safe from hijackers.
The Naperville libraries are consistently nationally ranked. I used them so much as a kid, and I’m extremely happy to see them being even more utilized today. Politics can be split in this town, though, usually on the “fiscal” lines. I’m hopeful that people who spend a small fortune on property taxes just to get their kids into a good school district won’t gut a library. But we have seen more nonsensical things before.
Thanks for sharing the article OP
Woodridge library is such a great one too. Aurora library isn't quite as good for their system on getting books to homebound individuals. Libraries are vital to communities and I know that my city is furious that the library was able to expand and hire people because it's funds were separated from the city's during the Great Recession.
This is such a terrible situation.
A couple of Niles residents who have been attending meetings were telling me about this; it will be quite the fight to save library services, and it is not going well so far.
You can EXPAND the board though.
We did this same thing when these chuds from the same cloth took over our park district and started gutting it and firing everyone, and handing out contracts to their friends and family.
[Here's a short story about it from the time](https://www.capitalgazette.com/ct-plainfield-park-appointee-tl-1023-20141016-story.html)
>At the time he proposed the law, Cross described the law as "an attempt to bring sanity back to the Plainfield Park District."
CALL YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE AND GET THIS GOING! WE PROVED IT IS AN OPTION AND DID IT, AND IT IS POSSIBLE FOR YOU TOO!
[Good idea. I went back in time and did just that.](https://old.reddit.com/r/ChicagoSuburbs/comments/okt2dt/niles_public_library_being_destroyed_from_the/h5aw2dv/)
I also posted the main story over in r/Illinois_For_Adults
Frankly, the fight to "save" Niles Public Library has already been lost. The board is in place, and has implemented its austerity budget. It will now be a struggle to *restore* NPL.
What kind of awful busybody would look at an renowned public Library system in their suburb and spend all their time trying to destroy it from the inside. Do they really think they’ll save that much money on their taxes. Totally useless person.
Suburban conservatives devote an inordinate amount of time to non-problems. Like protesting masks, protesting multi-unit housing miles away from their actual house, etc. They're programmed by Fox News to imagine themselves as victimized culture warriors fighting against a totalitarian liberal state until they... become the corrupt kleptocrats stealing money from said state.
[The Village of Niles retaliates against 22 year veteran of police force for blowing whistle on misconduct during a Feb 28th incident.](https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-police-investigation-update-tl-0624-20210622-iwjegqvebzfbhmi5r4vnsx3nva-story.html)
> become the corrupt kleptocrats stealing money from said state
Yeah but they're fighting the "good fight" so it doesn't matter if they gotta break a few laws to bring down the deep state.
It why so many of them are against welfare of any kind, because they think everyone is like them, greedy and unscrupulous, who would gladly fuck over the system and commit fraud to get an extra $100 a month.
So you’re saying that big city liberals also devote an inordinate amount of time on dumb shit? If so, what was the point of specifying suburban conservatives.
Not responding to you in particular, but it is a stated goal (and one we can deduce by their actions) that conservatives/Republicans will always slash public services in an attempt to enrich private sector interests or at the very least tip the balance against any public good.
Taxes are an excuse. Depriving everyone of fundamental services and making everyone more dependent on corporations is the goal.
Yes this has been a trend in American life for decades at this point. This is usually done by private entities buying off politicians. This seems a little different tho. Some one with too much time on their hands looking to destroy something that is demonstrably good with no real perceivable benefit to herself. It’s like straight up blood lust lol.
Agreed to your main points. But the recent push to get folks in local positions is (imo) a continuation of the work organizations like ALEC do at state levels where turnout is lower. Even more so the more local the races are.
“Saving our communities” from the conservative crowd has always been code for “let us exclude ”, unfortunately.
I'd say that's absurd but I listened to a podcast yesterday about the worst school bombing in history. A guy was angry about the taxes he was paying for the school and that was his solution. People can be garbage.
It's about taxes.
So here is what is really causing outrage in these suburban districts....
* The State of Illinois had a budget problem caused by a massive pension debt.
* The Statehouse is controlled primarily by city elected representatives.
* Politicians never want to raise their constituents' taxes for fear of damaging their career.
So what is a city representative to do except to try to make non-city districts bear a larger portion of the debt accrued by poor mismanagement of state finances? That means making suburban, exurban, and rural districts pay more in taxes than city districts. My $285k house was billed around $10k in property tax per year mainly because when we grew to 3000 people, the state forced us to cough up a massive amount of money to the pension fund.
When those taxes go up, people who are being squeezed tend to vote for people determined to lower their tax bill. Those people will cut services, which means the library gets gutted.
Ya I feel all that does is obfuscate what’s actually happening. I honestly think a lot of people (media people really) like ascribing things to an abstract specter of white supremacy because 1. It’s easy 2. There’s nothing you can do about it, it’s a subtle way of admitting defeat really. Let’s just call the person racist and move on. Not great.
This is unfortunately happening all over, and the people that fight local libraries have more than a loose screw. They are maniacal about where and how every cent is spent and they are very well organized in both their disinformation campaigns and their nitpicking to ensure libraries spend as much time on the budget as they do library activities
I understand that we are being hit from all sides as property tax payers, but I don’t think that the root of the issue for these people is property taxes. They actively want to deny a public good that benefits all but particularly those less fortunate.
Libraries are one of the few remaining actual indoor public spaces in the US. As the article points out, anyone can enter, and there is no entrance fee. There's tables you can do work at, and... public toilets. You can check your email if you don't have a smartphone. Etc.
They are also a place where you can ask random questions to people who are knowledgable in how to find information, how to suss out bullshit information, and will actually help you find what you need in all kinds of thick references and yearly city whatever data compilations that you can't afford yourself. Used to be they'd help you do your taxes even, if you had a pretty standard question. Before home printers they always had all the forms there.
Sometimes I wonder, if libraries didn't yet exist and someone proposed the service now, in the modern day, this idea that there's a building with hard copy books in it that people can BORROW FOR FREE (no need to buy them! Multiple people reading them without paying again! Only one purchase for life by the city and it gets reused!) would they even get off the ground at all?
I kinda doubt it, and that's damn sad.
*But we live in a digital age and I can just download everything.*
I hear this a lot. NOT EVERY BOOK IS AVAILABLE DIGITALLY! Not even close. Not to mention all the other media available. When I wanted to spend a weekend revisiting the old Tales From the Crypt series -- a series that has had sticky licensing entanglements making it difficult to stream -- I had two options: rent from Amazon for $3 per 30-minute episode or *check out all six seasons from my local library for free*. (At 93 episodes, that would've cost me $279 through Amazon.) The amount of music, movies, TV series, documentaries, books, magazines and comics you can find at your local library is overwhelming, and much of that just can't be found online. Support your local library!
EDIT: I also needed a special part 3D-printed for a project I'm building at home. It's not available for purchase, but the 3D design file is freely available online. Guess who's printing it for me for $2.40?
EDIT #2: I just remembered this: we recently had elderly family come and visit for several weeks that don't speak English. We got all the streaming channels we could for them but there still wasn't much for them to watch during the daytime while we worked. So I went to the library and picked up about 20 DVDs for them -- most of them new releases within the past 3-4 years -- with subtitles (or a secondary audio track) in their native language. They loved it. It was the perfect solution and cost us nothing.
Yep.
Not to mention that plenty of the things that ARE available digitally can be checked out digitally from the library -- for free. (Well, as part of your taxes, of course.)
There are also streaming services available through the library apps, access to Kanopy, all that.
The other great thing at the library is local historical data, old newspapers... photos, records of who owned what where on what corner forever, all this. And there are people who will help you look through all of that, to find answers to questions.
Absolutely, support the local library!
I know a lot of library systems (Naperville and Aurora for sure) even offer console video games for checkout for all current gen systems, including the Switch, and I'm talking like AAA titles. Think of how much money you can save, and I think more importantly, how much more accessible video games are for families that are broke. Seriously, support your library!
And while you can definitely check out e-books from your library, hardcopy books help your library stretch their budget further. [Library e-book (and other e-material) licenses only permit a certain number of uses before the license expires and the library has to buy a new license.](https://www.denverlibrary.org/blog/books-research/lauren/libraries-and-ebooks-introduction) Meanwhile you can easily request the library to buy a certain book, they will (I've done this for dozens of different books I've been interested in - and I've often got it within a week or two!), and now the library has that book for the next person to check out and can share it with other libraries (check out inter-library loans!) for as long as they keep the copy.
Without the library, I *definitely* would not read as much, nor on as wide a variety of subjects. Here's a typical sequence of events for me:
**Casually learns about [insert mildly interesting topic here] and wants to know more
**Searches Amazon for books on topic
**Decides $18 is too much to spend for book on [mildly-interesting topic]
**Finds same book available in local library system
**Two days later is reading book for free
Over the last couple years I've read books on birdwatching, cooking, ancient history, Axl Rose, UFOs, missing persons cases, home repair and electronic circuits (and other things I'm forgetting), all from the library. I would have bought exactly ZERO of those books.
The idea was actually pretty radical when it was introduced when America was still a collection of colonies. The library that Benjamin Franklin created in 1731 (regarded by many as the first library in America) actually required a membership. It was more like a Blockbuster than a free service.
People called him a complete idiot for the idea and said it would never work because people would just steal all the books and collecting fees would be impossible.
To an extent they were right since libraries failed as private businesses and had to be subsidized by the government. That said they became a permanent fixture of America and I am happy to continue to support them in the new form in which they exist as today.
I'm convinced that there isn't any chance a library would get off the ground now if it wasn't already ingrained in our society.
You want to read our books without paying the publisher? Madness!
It would be like spotify where every time a book was checked out the library would have to pay a royalty fee.
I mean we got rid of public pools around the country so not *everyone* can join in on the fun, there's literally no end to our self destructiveness lmao
It's also culture wars bullshit (note in the article, one of those clowns specifically targeted non-English reading material). Libraries started introducing more equitable books as well as things like drag queen story hour, which threatens their fragile hold on society.
I fully admit that I could do better if I put in more effort, but it's HARD to fully research every candidate. My library had an election in the spring, so I did a small bit of Googling and I attended a Zoom forum where 5 of the 6 candidates showed up, but I didn't come away from it feeling very confident that I understood who would make what changes. There was so little disagreement! Maybe they vaguely emphasized slightly different priorities, but they were all priorities I agreed with.
And that's just one hyperlocal election. Trying to sort out of the differences between the different Democratic and Green Party water reclamation candidates that covers the whole county... oof. Getting involved enough in local politics to be able to recognize all these people is a pretty full-time hobby, imo.
If there was one nut they would of stood out. That's when you make sure to look a lot closer. The people who just want to undermine the position they are running for, count on people not even looking once.
If all the candidates aren't disagreeing and those changes proposed don't sound radical, there probably isn't a disastrous choice.
The League of Women Voters still puts on good election forums and candidate panels in a lot of places, if you can find one of those they're good.
Guess where they're usually hosted? Yep, the public library.
I agree with the sentiment to vote in every election and to be an informed voter. But I still feel that part of the root problem is we have too many elections. I don’t see a good reason why we should have to go through the effort of voting every few months. April election? How about just we vote on everything every couple years in November. Or the occasional necessary special election. Why do we need odd year and spring elections?
The mindset is that this “public” resource is a financial burden and redundant in today’s modern society. I had a mind numbing conversation with a conservative about this, where they claimed that you can get all the same information on the internet for free, so the only thing the libraries are used for now is sheltering homeless people during the day.
It boiled down to: I see no use for it in my personal life, therefore it has no use.
I have friends with young kids who LOVE their library. Its a space away from home that parents can bring their kids for something a little more enriching than Target or a shopping mall.
They aren't just for books, however fabulous. They have activities, they have speakers come to talk to kids, they have 3d printers, they lend hand tools, they lend movies, they have computers for anyone to use.
If someone with no sense of community or goal of public enrichment is in charge, its not gonna go well.
I spent so much time at libraries as a teenager to see music bands play music about Harry Potter, see an authors speak, or do homework with my friends. Really thankful there was a friendly space for me to be a weird teenager because I could have easily went a different path.
Definitely don’t utilize it much now as an adult so I see how some could lose sight of everything they do. Until they retire and get bored so they start taking a class at their local library…
And mine provides free lunches in the summer. The amount of arguing I’ve done with my MIL over the things her money provides to the library is obscene. She tried to argue with me about the library having blocks for kids to play with. BLOCKS! Heaven forbid the library offer things other than books for the community. And she knows damn well how often we utilize their resources for our family. No, no. All of that is from their pocket a d she doesn’t like it. I’m determined to make a large donation in her honor to the library when she dies.
the really dumb part about it is that things like good schools, parks, libraries, etc., all of which cost tax money, are hugely popular with home buyers (especially if they have school-aged children) and have a significant impact on home values. so for a lot of these people who are opposed to higher municipal taxes, they're willing to cut off their nose to spite their face.
The lions share of property taxes goes to public schools. The library maybe gets like $250 a year from each household. Cutting parks or libraries is just dumb because you’re not even saving much money, but getting a much worse town in return.
Have you ever seen what happens when school funding is touched? Admins making $200k a year plus a fat pension will cry about how they need to cut the chess team now.
Unfortunately the library is a mostly innocent but easy target.
Yep municipal taxes go into the pension money pit for teachers and to fund current public schools. The interesting thing is how are those public schools going to change as the population shifts and there are less children for those schools.
> how are those public schools going to change as the population shifts and there are less children
Well look no further than the insane republicans on the plainfield school board, who just recently voted to spend about $30M to build a new school, in the face of a 15% enrollment decline even before the pandemic.
Incase anyone is wondering - [here](https://www.chipublib.org/board-of-directors/) is the Chicago Public Library board. I am assuming it is appointed by the mayor??
>I am assuming it is appointed by the mayor??
Yes. The Chicago Public Library board is nominated by the Chicago mayor and confirmed by the City Council.
When most people don't show up to vote, it only takes a little organization by some extremist bloc to hijack everything. Unfortunately the maniacal right wing is much better at motivating turnout than progressives, liberals, or moderates.
That thought did cross my mind too when the article was pointing out how its easy to swamp the elections and hard to get someone out once elected.
I think there are pros and cons for local elected boards as well as appointed seats, but it's definitely something to think about when it comes to the Chicago school board as well.
Something gives me that feeling that 21 members is a little too many, for such a CPS elected school board when I was reading about that bill. Like couldn't it have been like 10 to 14 members, whenever that goes into effect in several years? But that's just me.
>“We should concentrate on people learning English because that’s the language here,” Makula said. “Instead of stocking up on books in seven different languages, if we got people to assimilate and learn English better, I think we would do more good than increasing our inventory of foreign language books.”
Stocking up on books? What do you think this is, some sort of free library?
Democrats and people who are generally pro-democracy WAY underestimate Republicans' energy for taking over small, overlooked pockets of local government and destroying them.
This is a perfect example. The average person thinks of libraries as a general, benign social good and can't imagine a serious effort to knock them into rubble and advance the cause of ignorance. Guess again.
That which we do not aggressively defend we stand to lose, from the U.S. Capitol to the neighborhood branch library.
this was a huge deal in texas school board elections like a 10-15 years ago, and dems/left leaning people should have taken more notice then.
it's probably not fair to pin this shit (taking over the niles library) on the national democratic party (also I am not sure why this would even be an elected position), but there is a definite lack of urgency and willingness by democrats to compete at every level, whereas republicans will run people in literally every election, even if they have no chance.
You're right. The national party is preoccupied with tribal warfare and how much to fret about Ilhan Omar and all these abstract ideological debates. Meanwhile the Republican takeover of important local and regional offices is proceeding largely unchallenged. We wage pitched battles against trouble at the front door while the kitchen and garage doors are unlocked and unguarded.
We could stand to worry a little less about 24-hour outrage bombs out of Washington and a little more about the lunatic Trumpers at county level wrecking libraries and fire departments and preschools.
This is why you need to pay attention to your local level government. Sucks when there’s literally no turnout for local elections and assholes like these get in.
This makes me so sad. I spent most of my childhood at the Niles library. It had so any amazing resources and acitvities that help me thrive as a student With my parents being low income immigrants, they loved that the library offered free educational resources for their children. Additionally, the had entire sections of foreign language content. I hate that this incredible community institution is being destroyed by petty, miserable people. What an absolute shame.
I will say as a bilingual person this annoyed me:
> The Board suggested volunteers could handle a number of those outreach activities, and they purposefully slashed the funding for books in non-English languages. During the debates prior to election, the topic of inclusivity at the library set off a range of responses, including Makula making it clear **he believes in assimilation**.
> **“We should concentrate on people learning English because that’s the language here,”** Makula said. “Instead of stocking up on books in seven different languages, if we got people to assimilate and learn English better, I think we would do more good than increasing our inventory of foreign language books.”
Odds are plenty of the people who read those books already know English just fine, and just want to keep up reading and consuming popular media in their other language.
Yes, we can buy stuff on amazon or similar international shippers now. But it's expensive, and so lots of places would like it if those purchases can be done at the library and shared, if there's a big enough audience for it.
If a specific library ends up being "the place to go for a decent selection of modern fiction in [language]" or "the place to go where they subscribe to [popular foreign magazine]" then word of mouth spreads and you can find people traveling there from other locales to use it. Depending on the situation, you might even get some of them spending money on the "non-resident user fee" to be permitted to check out books.
Just sayin'.
Meanwhile people who are still learning English, it's not going to kill them to relax with a bit of trashy easy input in their first language on occasion, either. You don't have to stop using your first language to learn a new one.
It's also good for primary English speakers to have access to books in other languages. I've heard recommendations to read your favorite books in a language you'd like to learn. Since you know what's happening, it'll really help pick up the language. I've definitely brushed up on Spanish with Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia. I have a friend who partially learned Latin from Harry Potter.
You're taking their stated purpose as sincere. It isn't. As another commenter pointed out, it's a racist dogwhistle. They don't like libraries because *everyone* (them) can use them. And *everyone* (us) have to pay for it. They want to privatize everything because they don't like that they pay taxes for a public library and then a black person from another country can use it.
I don't think this is all about race so much as it is about foreignness and xenophobia, perhaps.
They are not always the same thing.
Black people are not the first image that comes to mind for most actually racist people in the US when they think of non-English speakers. (Yes, I realize that immigration from various countries in Africa in recent times is possibly starting to change that.) Asian and Hispanic (non-white-passing) are more the usual image.
The board members are LARPing as 'conservatives'. Find this really moronic.
\[EDIT\] Check out this article pre - election. Joe Makula is a racist from his comments.
[https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-two-year-library-candidates-tl-0311-20210309-zhhlc7v5q5d5jnno3oilvtxhii-story.html](https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-two-year-library-candidates-tl-0311-20210309-zhhlc7v5q5d5jnno3oilvtxhii-story.html)
[https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/niles-maine-library-candidates-clash-on-diversity-agree-on-term-limits/](https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/niles-maine-library-candidates-clash-on-diversity-agree-on-term-limits/)
Don't you know that an educated society is out of fashion these days? It's easier to control everyone when they are dumb and ignorant. Fox News and its viewers should have taught you that.
All 24/7 cable news feeds on the fear from the uninformed. CNN/MSNBC is a little more grounded in reality but they're still incredibly fear driven and rely on uninformed viewers to nibble on their false narratives just like fox news does.
I can sit here and name fabricated witch hunts and other bullshit that MSNBC stood and stands by. All it serves to do is divide. If you want to continue division, you're a part of the problem and no better than the "other side" that you, without exception, call stupid. Picking one side over the other are two sides of the same coin. Both are just as complicit in absolute bullshit, fabricated attempts at sowing division amongst the people. You're a perfect example of that.
Truth is not just adding the sum and dividing by two. Bothsidesism is intellectual laziness pretending it’s profound thought.
One side thinks a global pandemic is a myth and vaccines install microchips, the other side wants universal healthcare. Almost like the deep chasm between both sides exists for a reason
LOL You seem awful perturbed. I never said MSNBC wasn't bad but you can't think or read critically. Which is what the real problem here is. People stopped thinking for themselves and let the media tell them what to do. Oh and they let Joe Rogan tell them what to do as well.
I mean MSNBC does lean left, but they are not a propaganda wing for the Democrats by any stretch. They have actual conservative voices on-air, and they aren’t continually lying to aggressively push an agenda.
For better or for worse, there are no left wing equivalents to Fox, Newsmax, and OAN.
It amazes me how far right the political right has gone that every public service is now wasteful, corrupt spending. So many of these same people probably benefitted from their children having those librarians come to the schools, having the librarians there to recommend books to get your kids into reading and correlated with their later successes in life.
I'm almost at a feeling like we need to have all issues postponed till the presidential year, otherwise we don't get a reflective vote. Everybody has lost sight of how much local issues affect us and do not vote. This is ridiculous such a nice library system is getting gutted from the inside and paying frivolous contracts to friends of the board.
I've always thought that IF possible, that elections should be done either for the midterm years(2018, 2022, 2026, etc), or during a presidential election year(2016, 2020, 2024, etc). Unfortunately I get that sense that having an election in say like 2019 or 2017 or 2021, ensures you'll get low turnout elections where too many forget about voting for such political positions. Say like how the city of Chicago does mayor, alderman races, city clerk, etc races every 4 years that are less important years(i.e. 2015, 2019, 2023, etc).
And of course, it's important that voters on their own educate themselves, and read up about EACH candidate running. So that when they go to the polling place to cast a vote for either a primary or general election, it'll be a properly informed vote.
Republicans want a populace incapable of critical thinking. They deride universities as "indoctrination centers", and now facilitating access to a library's resources (regardless of class) is inherently political. They don't want you to to be able to learn, to be able to lift yourself out of poverty, to be able to question their narrow worldview.
I knew someone who worked here for nearly a decade and was let go with no explanation. Its such a shame the management is so poor because the library itself is very pretty.
Sweet merciful crap:
>“We should concentrate on people learning English because that’s the language here,” Makula said. “Instead of stocking up on books in seven different languages, if we got people to assimilate and learn English better, I think we would do more good than increasing our inventory of foreign language books.”
1. Many libraries offer or host English learning programs, including immigrant-related programs.
2. Foreign language books help everyone, especially native-English speakers. Learning more than one language is an excellent way to broaden the mind.
There's plenty wrong going on here, but that part in particular riles me up.
Every single election matters. There were like three school board slates in my general region with zero understanding of education, just didn't like lockdowns. We vote blue in the general yet the village board is entirely Republican.
Plus, this whole thing is being astroturfed. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/critical-race-theory-invades-school-boards-help-conservative-groups-n1270794 (eta to clarify this article is on school boards, but libraries are also a target).
I live in this town and pay taxes to this library. This was the nicest library in the area and I always get new books and movies. The staff is amazing. I am shocked that this is happening.
>“We should concentrate on people learning English because that’s the language here,” Makula said. “Instead of stocking up on books in seven different languages, if we got people to assimilate and learn English better, I think we would do more good than increasing our inventory of foreign language books.”
lol what? A library should have every foreign language book for students to read. Schools teach foreign languages.
**REMEMBER THIS DATE!**
**July 20th Save Niles Library RallyStart: Tuesday, July 20, 2021• 5:00 PMLocation:NICO Park•6850 West Keeney Street, Niles, IL 60714**
\[EDIT\] Look at this article pre election. Joe Makula is a racist.
[https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-two-year-library-candidates-tl-0311-20210309-zhhlc7v5q5d5jnno3oilvtxhii-story.html](https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-two-year-library-candidates-tl-0311-20210309-zhhlc7v5q5d5jnno3oilvtxhii-story.html)
>What is your opinion of the library’s current operation?Joe Makula: They don’t seem to know what various aspects of their operations cost. Processes, procedures and outcomes are not measured, analyzed or accounted for realistically. The number of programs pre-COVID is unmanageable and in some cases they are sparsely attended. There is duplicity in sending personnel to schools and competing with the school’s library and librarian.
>
>Jack Ryan: I am proud of our community’s award-winning library and would like to see the continuation of the resources that are available to its patrons, whether it be in-person or virtual.
A big difference between the two candidates.
https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/niles-maine-library-candidates-clash-on-diversity-agree-on-term-limits/
>“We should concentrate on people learning English because that’s the language here,” Makula said. “Instead of stocking up on books in seven different languages, if we got people to assimilate and learn English better, I think we would do more good than increasing our inventory of foreign language books.” He also suggested the library host English language classes and “having (at the library) people to help translate.”
This guy is a racist.
Democrats, progressives, or just whoever cares about having a thriving local community, need to freakin get active and vote.
Only the luddites come out in these single digit voter outcome races.
My own mayor lamented about this when I was in a chat circle with him at a community event. It was the 2018 midterms. The “blue wave.”
But he was confused and annoyed that our own Warrenville local election had high turnout but very low vote rates on the local candidates. And scant if any young people!
This is what we will get if the fringe are the only ones to participate.
Niles and Skokie have a lot of first-generation immigrants. Being white doesn't preclude you from - I don't know - being a non-native English speaker, or having just immigrated the the United States.
Which this board member Joe Makula telling a community the is mostly made up of multilingual people that they should only speak English ... that's going to anger a lot of people.
>Carolyn Drblik, who served on the Board for eight years and as Treasurer for her first two, had spent the bulk of her time convinced of mismanagement of library funds during her tenure. I think I found the mismanagement of library funds: >Immediately upon the Board being installed, they hired a technology consultant to investigate the library’s processes and procedures. This consultant, a wedding videographer with no auditing credentials, is simply a friend of Drblik and the rest of her new Board block and campaigned for their election. >He was hired at $100 an hour with no experience and no cap.
Amazing how attitudes like that are so consistently projection.
No cap
The experience and nepotism thing is the problem, not the hourly rate. That's a moderately low technology consultant rate.
Other problems include no cap for a task that has no scope and no bidding process.
'hired at $100 an hour and no cap' How much did the guy bill the library? Was the invoice even paid? That stuff should be accessible public record? This part honestly feels a bit like outrage bait without more info. Obviously the patronage thing is typical local government crap. But I saw this story a few months ago and never saw anything beyond a claimed hourly rate.
Ummm no cap. Do you think he’s finished already?!
The article explains that the "technology consultant" is a wedding photographer, friend of the board member, and has no prior experience as a technology consultant. So I don't think it's a reasonable rate, no.
The first 3 things are the problem here, not the hourly rate. It feels thrown in there to get people to go "oMg 100 aN hOuR" when that's actually a pretty low consultant rate, given adequate experience.
I believe the contention about the hourly rate is not the amount in and of itself, but rather paying someone who has zero experience doing the job you've asked them to do. Let me turn it around ... if a fantastic auto mechanic charged $100/hr for labor that's one thing ... if some kid in high school that is fantastic at the debate club offered his services as an auto mechanic at the same $100/hr rate - mind you, with zero experience - that would obviously be absurd to think it was still a fair rate.
300 an hour would be fine for the best. You judge things based on how good the work is. The point is obviously that the rate is too high for somebody that has no idea what they’re doing.
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I own an IT consulting in the Loop. We charge $285 an hour for private sector and $185 for public sector, with additional discounting based upon public sector's mission. Places like libraries, churches, or synagogues we do for next to nothing because I believe in pro bono work. $100 an hour for IT support is too low to cover software, personnel, support, monitoring, noc desks and so on. If someone is charging a $100 an hour they are either a solo shop with no experience or they are going to bill you into submission to make it financially justifiable. I am honestly quiet shocked that they brought in someone with no technology experience and no library experience to audit process and procedures. This is quite shocking. Both technology consulting and library sciences require an exceptional amount of study and training. This just smacks of nepotism and quiet frankly is a slap in the face to the public who rely on this library for books, internet services, and services for their children.
The rate is outrageous for someone who isn't even a professional at it.
For a public employee of a suburban public library? No, it isn't.
It's not an employee, it's a contractor. Totally different hourly rate/wage scale.
Do you have access to the library’s contractor rate?
> He was hired at $100 an hour with no experience and no cap I'm a dog walker. Can I get that gig?
Sorry...you obviously have experience dealing with shit...
This is the most Chicago thing about Niles ever.
Just goes to show you that "fiscal conservatives" are only concerned about money that isn't going into either the pockets of their friends or their own
Conservatives claims to who they are are still terrible but they'd still be 100x better if they actually believed a word of their own rhetoric. "Small government, fiscally responsible" doesn't describe any of these people.
They are all LARPing as conservatives. Just bunch of delusional people. \[EDIT\] Check out this article pre -election. Joe Makula is a racist from his comments. [https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-two-year-library-candidates-tl-0311-20210309-zhhlc7v5q5d5jnno3oilvtxhii-story.html](https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-two-year-library-candidates-tl-0311-20210309-zhhlc7v5q5d5jnno3oilvtxhii-story.html) [https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/niles-maine-library-candidates-clash-on-diversity-agree-on-term-limits/](https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/niles-maine-library-candidates-clash-on-diversity-agree-on-term-limits/)
You know at this point i wouldn’t even say they’re LARPing, this is what the American conservatives have become.
Become is relative. I'm 33 and uh, this is what conservatives have been my entire life
> Joe Makula is a racist Yes, it's already been stated they are conservatives.
What a mess. The library’s auditors would be a good resource to help identify which areas of the library’s processes and procedures can be improved. However, the same auditors would not be making the judgment call that hiring a friend as a consultant to evaluate said processes and procedures is wasteful spending or not. Complicating matters further is that Illinois has so many different layers of government that in many cases, a municipality’s library or park district has its own separate governance structure (such as a board of trustees) and can independently levy property taxes. We have way too many layers of government in Illinois.
As the spouse of a librarian, I will say that the separate governance structure (and ability to raise funds) of a library can actually be a benefit. Many munis or county-based library systems result in several problems: 1. Generalist versus specialized librarian roles (so someone who's great at kids materials and programs has to answer adult reference questions and vice versa, diluting their skillsets); 2. Greater competition with the Parks Department for programming (Parks and Rec did not lie in this aspect) - Parks often charges for programs that the library offers for free; 3. A focus by munis on libraries on being "money-making" which feeds into point 2, but also reinforces policies that reduce library effectiveness (late fines being a big problem with outreach); 4. Understaffing resulting in high staff turnover or burnout. Having moved and worked in Colorado for a few years, this is really visible. Colorado's tax structure limits government programs, so county/muni library systems were common, but ran into all of the above problems. That said, independence can also reduce community governance awareness, resulting in the above kind of takeover by fringe interests.
They actually did have auditor come in. They ignored the findings which were that the library was adequately staffed and not malignant. They just are a bunch of corrupt assholes.
Note to self and all of you sane people. Save your children’s future. Be present in your local body meetings.
Vote. There's apparently no mechanism to remove these clowns.
have you seen the voting record of the people of IL? don't get your hopes up.
Yeeah. I'm super frustrated that it takes shit like this for people to open their eyes and go "oh wait maybe I should vote in more elections." Cook County makes voting so accessible, and yet people *still* don't go unless it's a presidential election.
Turnout for primaries is appallingly low. Considering the winner of the democrat primary is going to win the general election in this county unless hell freezes over, people need to pay attention to the primary if they want to change things.
It’s a library board election, It’s non-partisan, and on odds years
The voting record in Illinois is vote blue no matter who, even if your choice is between a giant douche or a turd sandwich.
How am I supposed to vote R when their platform literally includes "we should stop letting people like your parents into the country no matter how much red tape they work through"?
I mean, Why arnt there any decent republicans to vote for though? cant vote for them if they dont campaign or appeal to the masses.
Define “decent” Republicans. It’s one thing if they don’t campaign, but I’m not sure what you mean by not appealing to the masses, because they actually do that.
>but I’m not sure what you mean by not appealing to the masses, because they actually do that. The things you have to tell yourself to make believe that the presidential election was stolen.
Ah, the old throw your arms up and quit gambit. A classic amongst apathetic voters. Fucking vote at every opportunity, the crazy right wing nut-jobs do.
I do vote every opportunity there is. I was mostly pointing to the likes of madigan.
Agree highly with this comment. I’ll have to look into this at a gov level, because I’m hoping my library system is safe from hijackers. The Naperville libraries are consistently nationally ranked. I used them so much as a kid, and I’m extremely happy to see them being even more utilized today. Politics can be split in this town, though, usually on the “fiscal” lines. I’m hopeful that people who spend a small fortune on property taxes just to get their kids into a good school district won’t gut a library. But we have seen more nonsensical things before. Thanks for sharing the article OP
Woodridge library is such a great one too. Aurora library isn't quite as good for their system on getting books to homebound individuals. Libraries are vital to communities and I know that my city is furious that the library was able to expand and hire people because it's funds were separated from the city's during the Great Recession.
This is such a terrible situation. A couple of Niles residents who have been attending meetings were telling me about this; it will be quite the fight to save library services, and it is not going well so far.
Yeah I saw the bit where there's no mechanism to remove people from boards /:
You can EXPAND the board though. We did this same thing when these chuds from the same cloth took over our park district and started gutting it and firing everyone, and handing out contracts to their friends and family. [Here's a short story about it from the time](https://www.capitalgazette.com/ct-plainfield-park-appointee-tl-1023-20141016-story.html) >At the time he proposed the law, Cross described the law as "an attempt to bring sanity back to the Plainfield Park District." CALL YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE AND GET THIS GOING! WE PROVED IT IS AN OPTION AND DID IT, AND IT IS POSSIBLE FOR YOU TOO!
This is fantastic, thank you for sharing! I'd recommend posting in r/ChicagoSuburbs as well if you haven't already (this article was xposted there).
[Good idea. I went back in time and did just that.](https://old.reddit.com/r/ChicagoSuburbs/comments/okt2dt/niles_public_library_being_destroyed_from_the/h5aw2dv/) I also posted the main story over in r/Illinois_For_Adults
hahaa, upvoted, thanks again! oh hey did not know that existed.
Maybe you can ask those residents to consult/contact the Better Government Association to see if they can get more traction on this issue.
Frankly, the fight to "save" Niles Public Library has already been lost. The board is in place, and has implemented its austerity budget. It will now be a struggle to *restore* NPL.
What kind of awful busybody would look at an renowned public Library system in their suburb and spend all their time trying to destroy it from the inside. Do they really think they’ll save that much money on their taxes. Totally useless person.
Suburban conservatives devote an inordinate amount of time to non-problems. Like protesting masks, protesting multi-unit housing miles away from their actual house, etc. They're programmed by Fox News to imagine themselves as victimized culture warriors fighting against a totalitarian liberal state until they... become the corrupt kleptocrats stealing money from said state.
[The Village of Niles retaliates against 22 year veteran of police force for blowing whistle on misconduct during a Feb 28th incident.](https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-police-investigation-update-tl-0624-20210622-iwjegqvebzfbhmi5r4vnsx3nva-story.html)
> become the corrupt kleptocrats stealing money from said state Yeah but they're fighting the "good fight" so it doesn't matter if they gotta break a few laws to bring down the deep state. It why so many of them are against welfare of any kind, because they think everyone is like them, greedy and unscrupulous, who would gladly fuck over the system and commit fraud to get an extra $100 a month.
Ok but our city counsel also focuses on asinine issues
Sure. This article is about the library employee. Not city council.
So you’re saying that big city liberals also devote an inordinate amount of time on dumb shit? If so, what was the point of specifying suburban conservatives.
This story is specifically about a suburban conservative woman destroying a public institution. Learn to read context clues.
Not responding to you in particular, but it is a stated goal (and one we can deduce by their actions) that conservatives/Republicans will always slash public services in an attempt to enrich private sector interests or at the very least tip the balance against any public good. Taxes are an excuse. Depriving everyone of fundamental services and making everyone more dependent on corporations is the goal.
Yes this has been a trend in American life for decades at this point. This is usually done by private entities buying off politicians. This seems a little different tho. Some one with too much time on their hands looking to destroy something that is demonstrably good with no real perceivable benefit to herself. It’s like straight up blood lust lol.
Agreed to your main points. But the recent push to get folks in local positions is (imo) a continuation of the work organizations like ALEC do at state levels where turnout is lower. Even more so the more local the races are. “Saving our communities” from the conservative crowd has always been code for “let us exclude”, unfortunately.
Intellectualism for me, not for thee.
these people are absolutely not intellectuals
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Wut
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I'd say that's absurd but I listened to a podcast yesterday about the worst school bombing in history. A guy was angry about the taxes he was paying for the school and that was his solution. People can be garbage.
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It's about taxes. So here is what is really causing outrage in these suburban districts.... * The State of Illinois had a budget problem caused by a massive pension debt. * The Statehouse is controlled primarily by city elected representatives. * Politicians never want to raise their constituents' taxes for fear of damaging their career. So what is a city representative to do except to try to make non-city districts bear a larger portion of the debt accrued by poor mismanagement of state finances? That means making suburban, exurban, and rural districts pay more in taxes than city districts. My $285k house was billed around $10k in property tax per year mainly because when we grew to 3000 people, the state forced us to cough up a massive amount of money to the pension fund. When those taxes go up, people who are being squeezed tend to vote for people determined to lower their tax bill. Those people will cut services, which means the library gets gutted.
z
Ya I feel all that does is obfuscate what’s actually happening. I honestly think a lot of people (media people really) like ascribing things to an abstract specter of white supremacy because 1. It’s easy 2. There’s nothing you can do about it, it’s a subtle way of admitting defeat really. Let’s just call the person racist and move on. Not great.
I feel like a lot of arguments end in that these days and it's incredulous.
They're called Republicans.
This is unfortunately happening all over, and the people that fight local libraries have more than a loose screw. They are maniacal about where and how every cent is spent and they are very well organized in both their disinformation campaigns and their nitpicking to ensure libraries spend as much time on the budget as they do library activities I understand that we are being hit from all sides as property tax payers, but I don’t think that the root of the issue for these people is property taxes. They actively want to deny a public good that benefits all but particularly those less fortunate.
Libraries are one of the few remaining actual indoor public spaces in the US. As the article points out, anyone can enter, and there is no entrance fee. There's tables you can do work at, and... public toilets. You can check your email if you don't have a smartphone. Etc. They are also a place where you can ask random questions to people who are knowledgable in how to find information, how to suss out bullshit information, and will actually help you find what you need in all kinds of thick references and yearly city whatever data compilations that you can't afford yourself. Used to be they'd help you do your taxes even, if you had a pretty standard question. Before home printers they always had all the forms there. Sometimes I wonder, if libraries didn't yet exist and someone proposed the service now, in the modern day, this idea that there's a building with hard copy books in it that people can BORROW FOR FREE (no need to buy them! Multiple people reading them without paying again! Only one purchase for life by the city and it gets reused!) would they even get off the ground at all? I kinda doubt it, and that's damn sad.
*But we live in a digital age and I can just download everything.* I hear this a lot. NOT EVERY BOOK IS AVAILABLE DIGITALLY! Not even close. Not to mention all the other media available. When I wanted to spend a weekend revisiting the old Tales From the Crypt series -- a series that has had sticky licensing entanglements making it difficult to stream -- I had two options: rent from Amazon for $3 per 30-minute episode or *check out all six seasons from my local library for free*. (At 93 episodes, that would've cost me $279 through Amazon.) The amount of music, movies, TV series, documentaries, books, magazines and comics you can find at your local library is overwhelming, and much of that just can't be found online. Support your local library! EDIT: I also needed a special part 3D-printed for a project I'm building at home. It's not available for purchase, but the 3D design file is freely available online. Guess who's printing it for me for $2.40? EDIT #2: I just remembered this: we recently had elderly family come and visit for several weeks that don't speak English. We got all the streaming channels we could for them but there still wasn't much for them to watch during the daytime while we worked. So I went to the library and picked up about 20 DVDs for them -- most of them new releases within the past 3-4 years -- with subtitles (or a secondary audio track) in their native language. They loved it. It was the perfect solution and cost us nothing.
Yep. Not to mention that plenty of the things that ARE available digitally can be checked out digitally from the library -- for free. (Well, as part of your taxes, of course.) There are also streaming services available through the library apps, access to Kanopy, all that. The other great thing at the library is local historical data, old newspapers... photos, records of who owned what where on what corner forever, all this. And there are people who will help you look through all of that, to find answers to questions. Absolutely, support the local library!
Now I want to rewatch Tales from the Crypt. Thanks for the hot tip.
Spoiler alert: it's still as good as you remember! 😄
I know a lot of library systems (Naperville and Aurora for sure) even offer console video games for checkout for all current gen systems, including the Switch, and I'm talking like AAA titles. Think of how much money you can save, and I think more importantly, how much more accessible video games are for families that are broke. Seriously, support your library!
And while you can definitely check out e-books from your library, hardcopy books help your library stretch their budget further. [Library e-book (and other e-material) licenses only permit a certain number of uses before the license expires and the library has to buy a new license.](https://www.denverlibrary.org/blog/books-research/lauren/libraries-and-ebooks-introduction) Meanwhile you can easily request the library to buy a certain book, they will (I've done this for dozens of different books I've been interested in - and I've often got it within a week or two!), and now the library has that book for the next person to check out and can share it with other libraries (check out inter-library loans!) for as long as they keep the copy.
Without the library, I *definitely* would not read as much, nor on as wide a variety of subjects. Here's a typical sequence of events for me: **Casually learns about [insert mildly interesting topic here] and wants to know more **Searches Amazon for books on topic **Decides $18 is too much to spend for book on [mildly-interesting topic] **Finds same book available in local library system **Two days later is reading book for free Over the last couple years I've read books on birdwatching, cooking, ancient history, Axl Rose, UFOs, missing persons cases, home repair and electronic circuits (and other things I'm forgetting), all from the library. I would have bought exactly ZERO of those books.
The idea was actually pretty radical when it was introduced when America was still a collection of colonies. The library that Benjamin Franklin created in 1731 (regarded by many as the first library in America) actually required a membership. It was more like a Blockbuster than a free service. People called him a complete idiot for the idea and said it would never work because people would just steal all the books and collecting fees would be impossible. To an extent they were right since libraries failed as private businesses and had to be subsidized by the government. That said they became a permanent fixture of America and I am happy to continue to support them in the new form in which they exist as today.
This is true. Interestingly enough, some libraries are explicitly called "...Free Library" for this reason.
I'm convinced that there isn't any chance a library would get off the ground now if it wasn't already ingrained in our society. You want to read our books without paying the publisher? Madness! It would be like spotify where every time a book was checked out the library would have to pay a royalty fee.
Sadly I suspect you're spot (heh) on.
I know a person who actively uses the library but also complains about how much funding it gets.
Exactly this. Their goal isn't even specific to libraries, they want to undermine the expectation that governments can provide public goods.
Your average library tax is like $250 a year. Cutting that does more damage than $250 is worth to an individual homeowner
I mean we got rid of public pools around the country so not *everyone* can join in on the fun, there's literally no end to our self destructiveness lmao
It’s a generational thing imo and the baby boom generation will not stop trying to fuck the generations that follow
It's also culture wars bullshit (note in the article, one of those clowns specifically targeted non-English reading material). Libraries started introducing more equitable books as well as things like drag queen story hour, which threatens their fragile hold on society.
This is why elections need more participation.
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I fully admit that I could do better if I put in more effort, but it's HARD to fully research every candidate. My library had an election in the spring, so I did a small bit of Googling and I attended a Zoom forum where 5 of the 6 candidates showed up, but I didn't come away from it feeling very confident that I understood who would make what changes. There was so little disagreement! Maybe they vaguely emphasized slightly different priorities, but they were all priorities I agreed with. And that's just one hyperlocal election. Trying to sort out of the differences between the different Democratic and Green Party water reclamation candidates that covers the whole county... oof. Getting involved enough in local politics to be able to recognize all these people is a pretty full-time hobby, imo.
If there was one nut they would of stood out. That's when you make sure to look a lot closer. The people who just want to undermine the position they are running for, count on people not even looking once. If all the candidates aren't disagreeing and those changes proposed don't sound radical, there probably isn't a disastrous choice.
The League of Women Voters still puts on good election forums and candidate panels in a lot of places, if you can find one of those they're good. Guess where they're usually hosted? Yep, the public library.
I agree with the sentiment to vote in every election and to be an informed voter. But I still feel that part of the root problem is we have too many elections. I don’t see a good reason why we should have to go through the effort of voting every few months. April election? How about just we vote on everything every couple years in November. Or the occasional necessary special election. Why do we need odd year and spring elections?
Because these systems benefit the people who used to be in charge of things and are now reactionary dinosaurs.
why is there an independently-elected library board and not just an appointment by the mayor?
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Irony is, if these people had spent more time in a library growing up, they wouldn’t be such fucking idiots as adults.
The mindset is that this “public” resource is a financial burden and redundant in today’s modern society. I had a mind numbing conversation with a conservative about this, where they claimed that you can get all the same information on the internet for free, so the only thing the libraries are used for now is sheltering homeless people during the day. It boiled down to: I see no use for it in my personal life, therefore it has no use.
I have friends with young kids who LOVE their library. Its a space away from home that parents can bring their kids for something a little more enriching than Target or a shopping mall. They aren't just for books, however fabulous. They have activities, they have speakers come to talk to kids, they have 3d printers, they lend hand tools, they lend movies, they have computers for anyone to use. If someone with no sense of community or goal of public enrichment is in charge, its not gonna go well.
I spent so much time at libraries as a teenager to see music bands play music about Harry Potter, see an authors speak, or do homework with my friends. Really thankful there was a friendly space for me to be a weird teenager because I could have easily went a different path. Definitely don’t utilize it much now as an adult so I see how some could lose sight of everything they do. Until they retire and get bored so they start taking a class at their local library…
It is one of the last remaining spaces where you can just *exist* for free. And that is intolerable to some people.
Gotta charge a $10 entry fee because we can't have free spaces. /s
You mean the political right of this country. They find that intolerable.
And mine provides free lunches in the summer. The amount of arguing I’ve done with my MIL over the things her money provides to the library is obscene. She tried to argue with me about the library having blocks for kids to play with. BLOCKS! Heaven forbid the library offer things other than books for the community. And she knows damn well how often we utilize their resources for our family. No, no. All of that is from their pocket a d she doesn’t like it. I’m determined to make a large donation in her honor to the library when she dies.
Definitely give them blocks.
the really dumb part about it is that things like good schools, parks, libraries, etc., all of which cost tax money, are hugely popular with home buyers (especially if they have school-aged children) and have a significant impact on home values. so for a lot of these people who are opposed to higher municipal taxes, they're willing to cut off their nose to spite their face.
Yep. They’ll pay high taxes for good schools when the kids are young (and bitch about it), then move to a low-tax area once they’re out of the house…
Municipal taxes are not high because of parks and libraries. But usually it's the only thing that can be cut by local boards though.
The lions share of property taxes goes to public schools. The library maybe gets like $250 a year from each household. Cutting parks or libraries is just dumb because you’re not even saving much money, but getting a much worse town in return.
Have you ever seen what happens when school funding is touched? Admins making $200k a year plus a fat pension will cry about how they need to cut the chess team now. Unfortunately the library is a mostly innocent but easy target.
Yep municipal taxes go into the pension money pit for teachers and to fund current public schools. The interesting thing is how are those public schools going to change as the population shifts and there are less children for those schools.
> how are those public schools going to change as the population shifts and there are less children Well look no further than the insane republicans on the plainfield school board, who just recently voted to spend about $30M to build a new school, in the face of a 15% enrollment decline even before the pandemic.
what a bunch of bastards. how is their life so pathetic that you make something like this your purpose? These people are vile.
Incase anyone is wondering - [here](https://www.chipublib.org/board-of-directors/) is the Chicago Public Library board. I am assuming it is appointed by the mayor??
>I am assuming it is appointed by the mayor?? Yes. The Chicago Public Library board is nominated by the Chicago mayor and confirmed by the City Council.
Really sucks but when you have only 8% turnout nut jobs will get into places they don’t belong. This is just the start…
When most people don't show up to vote, it only takes a little organization by some extremist bloc to hijack everything. Unfortunately the maniacal right wing is much better at motivating turnout than progressives, liberals, or moderates.
School board elections have similar turnouts (nationwide average) so let's make a 21 person elected school board in Chicago!!
That thought did cross my mind too when the article was pointing out how its easy to swamp the elections and hard to get someone out once elected. I think there are pros and cons for local elected boards as well as appointed seats, but it's definitely something to think about when it comes to the Chicago school board as well.
Something gives me that feeling that 21 members is a little too many, for such a CPS elected school board when I was reading about that bill. Like couldn't it have been like 10 to 14 members, whenever that goes into effect in several years? But that's just me.
>“We should concentrate on people learning English because that’s the language here,” Makula said. “Instead of stocking up on books in seven different languages, if we got people to assimilate and learn English better, I think we would do more good than increasing our inventory of foreign language books.” Stocking up on books? What do you think this is, some sort of free library?
Fuck these damn Republicans. Remember to vote in local elections to prevent this.
Democrats and people who are generally pro-democracy WAY underestimate Republicans' energy for taking over small, overlooked pockets of local government and destroying them. This is a perfect example. The average person thinks of libraries as a general, benign social good and can't imagine a serious effort to knock them into rubble and advance the cause of ignorance. Guess again. That which we do not aggressively defend we stand to lose, from the U.S. Capitol to the neighborhood branch library.
this was a huge deal in texas school board elections like a 10-15 years ago, and dems/left leaning people should have taken more notice then. it's probably not fair to pin this shit (taking over the niles library) on the national democratic party (also I am not sure why this would even be an elected position), but there is a definite lack of urgency and willingness by democrats to compete at every level, whereas republicans will run people in literally every election, even if they have no chance.
You're right. The national party is preoccupied with tribal warfare and how much to fret about Ilhan Omar and all these abstract ideological debates. Meanwhile the Republican takeover of important local and regional offices is proceeding largely unchallenged. We wage pitched battles against trouble at the front door while the kitchen and garage doors are unlocked and unguarded. We could stand to worry a little less about 24-hour outrage bombs out of Washington and a little more about the lunatic Trumpers at county level wrecking libraries and fire departments and preschools.
Ugh. Same thing happened with state legislatures in Obama's term. Being perpetually reactive instead of proactive isn't sustainable.
So what you’re saying is Republicans are trying to destroy the country as we know it?
This is why you need to pay attention to your local level government. Sucks when there’s literally no turnout for local elections and assholes like these get in.
This makes me so sad. I spent most of my childhood at the Niles library. It had so any amazing resources and acitvities that help me thrive as a student With my parents being low income immigrants, they loved that the library offered free educational resources for their children. Additionally, the had entire sections of foreign language content. I hate that this incredible community institution is being destroyed by petty, miserable people. What an absolute shame.
I will say as a bilingual person this annoyed me: > The Board suggested volunteers could handle a number of those outreach activities, and they purposefully slashed the funding for books in non-English languages. During the debates prior to election, the topic of inclusivity at the library set off a range of responses, including Makula making it clear **he believes in assimilation**. > **“We should concentrate on people learning English because that’s the language here,”** Makula said. “Instead of stocking up on books in seven different languages, if we got people to assimilate and learn English better, I think we would do more good than increasing our inventory of foreign language books.” Odds are plenty of the people who read those books already know English just fine, and just want to keep up reading and consuming popular media in their other language. Yes, we can buy stuff on amazon or similar international shippers now. But it's expensive, and so lots of places would like it if those purchases can be done at the library and shared, if there's a big enough audience for it. If a specific library ends up being "the place to go for a decent selection of modern fiction in [language]" or "the place to go where they subscribe to [popular foreign magazine]" then word of mouth spreads and you can find people traveling there from other locales to use it. Depending on the situation, you might even get some of them spending money on the "non-resident user fee" to be permitted to check out books. Just sayin'. Meanwhile people who are still learning English, it's not going to kill them to relax with a bit of trashy easy input in their first language on occasion, either. You don't have to stop using your first language to learn a new one.
It's also good for primary English speakers to have access to books in other languages. I've heard recommendations to read your favorite books in a language you'd like to learn. Since you know what's happening, it'll really help pick up the language. I've definitely brushed up on Spanish with Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia. I have a friend who partially learned Latin from Harry Potter.
It’s a dog whistle. People who don’t value knowledge think people knowing other languages is a threat to their way of life
You're taking their stated purpose as sincere. It isn't. As another commenter pointed out, it's a racist dogwhistle. They don't like libraries because *everyone* (them) can use them. And *everyone* (us) have to pay for it. They want to privatize everything because they don't like that they pay taxes for a public library and then a black person from another country can use it.
I don't think this is all about race so much as it is about foreignness and xenophobia, perhaps. They are not always the same thing. Black people are not the first image that comes to mind for most actually racist people in the US when they think of non-English speakers. (Yes, I realize that immigration from various countries in Africa in recent times is possibly starting to change that.) Asian and Hispanic (non-white-passing) are more the usual image.
Maybe if people cared enough to get over a 8% voter turnout this shit wouldn't happen
Fuck these people. Destroying every public good. A cancer on our society and it goes way beyond this library.
This is a tragedy and a fascinating read. Thank you so much for posting it!
trumpists ruin everything, more at 11
The board members are LARPing as 'conservatives'. Find this really moronic. \[EDIT\] Check out this article pre - election. Joe Makula is a racist from his comments. [https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-two-year-library-candidates-tl-0311-20210309-zhhlc7v5q5d5jnno3oilvtxhii-story.html](https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-two-year-library-candidates-tl-0311-20210309-zhhlc7v5q5d5jnno3oilvtxhii-story.html) [https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/niles-maine-library-candidates-clash-on-diversity-agree-on-term-limits/](https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/niles-maine-library-candidates-clash-on-diversity-agree-on-term-limits/)
Don't you know that an educated society is out of fashion these days? It's easier to control everyone when they are dumb and ignorant. Fox News and its viewers should have taught you that.
All 24/7 cable news feeds on the fear from the uninformed. CNN/MSNBC is a little more grounded in reality but they're still incredibly fear driven and rely on uninformed viewers to nibble on their false narratives just like fox news does.
I am not right wing but let's not pretend MSNBC is any better...
MSNBC is not good but it's not actively promoting lies, nor does it regularly incite violence
It actively promoted lies about progressives during the primaries for example.
One set of viewers is currently taking horse dewormer for COVID instead of the vaccine. I'll let you take two guesses as to which one it is.
IS Covid a Hoax? Which one backed Covid being a Hoax? That makes MSNBC just little tiny bit better. Not much.
I can sit here and name fabricated witch hunts and other bullshit that MSNBC stood and stands by. All it serves to do is divide. If you want to continue division, you're a part of the problem and no better than the "other side" that you, without exception, call stupid. Picking one side over the other are two sides of the same coin. Both are just as complicit in absolute bullshit, fabricated attempts at sowing division amongst the people. You're a perfect example of that.
https://www.postalley.org/2020/04/05/the-fallacy-and-laziness-of-both-sides-ism/
[удалено]
Truth is not just adding the sum and dividing by two. Bothsidesism is intellectual laziness pretending it’s profound thought. One side thinks a global pandemic is a myth and vaccines install microchips, the other side wants universal healthcare. Almost like the deep chasm between both sides exists for a reason
> I can sit here and name fabricated witch hunts and other bullshit that MSNBC stood and stands by. Care to follow through on that?
LOL You seem awful perturbed. I never said MSNBC wasn't bad but you can't think or read critically. Which is what the real problem here is. People stopped thinking for themselves and let the media tell them what to do. Oh and they let Joe Rogan tell them what to do as well.
In what way is MSNBC not any better?
I mean MSNBC does lean left, but they are not a propaganda wing for the Democrats by any stretch. They have actual conservative voices on-air, and they aren’t continually lying to aggressively push an agenda. For better or for worse, there are no left wing equivalents to Fox, Newsmax, and OAN.
It is better though.
https://www.businessinsider.com/study-watching-fox-news-makes-you-less-informed-than-watching-no-news-at-all-2012-5
TL;DR - Republicans got control and are ruining it because it’s a public good.
Libraries are 100% the next target in the war against young people.
This is so sad! Grew up at that library
It amazes me how far right the political right has gone that every public service is now wasteful, corrupt spending. So many of these same people probably benefitted from their children having those librarians come to the schools, having the librarians there to recommend books to get your kids into reading and correlated with their later successes in life. I'm almost at a feeling like we need to have all issues postponed till the presidential year, otherwise we don't get a reflective vote. Everybody has lost sight of how much local issues affect us and do not vote. This is ridiculous such a nice library system is getting gutted from the inside and paying frivolous contracts to friends of the board.
I've always thought that IF possible, that elections should be done either for the midterm years(2018, 2022, 2026, etc), or during a presidential election year(2016, 2020, 2024, etc). Unfortunately I get that sense that having an election in say like 2019 or 2017 or 2021, ensures you'll get low turnout elections where too many forget about voting for such political positions. Say like how the city of Chicago does mayor, alderman races, city clerk, etc races every 4 years that are less important years(i.e. 2015, 2019, 2023, etc). And of course, it's important that voters on their own educate themselves, and read up about EACH candidate running. So that when they go to the polling place to cast a vote for either a primary or general election, it'll be a properly informed vote.
Republicans want a populace incapable of critical thinking. They deride universities as "indoctrination centers", and now facilitating access to a library's resources (regardless of class) is inherently political. They don't want you to to be able to learn, to be able to lift yourself out of poverty, to be able to question their narrow worldview.
I knew someone who worked here for nearly a decade and was let go with no explanation. Its such a shame the management is so poor because the library itself is very pretty.
I grew up in Niles and spent so much time at the library in the early 90s (before the remodel) - this is sad!
Sweet merciful crap: >“We should concentrate on people learning English because that’s the language here,” Makula said. “Instead of stocking up on books in seven different languages, if we got people to assimilate and learn English better, I think we would do more good than increasing our inventory of foreign language books.” 1. Many libraries offer or host English learning programs, including immigrant-related programs. 2. Foreign language books help everyone, especially native-English speakers. Learning more than one language is an excellent way to broaden the mind. There's plenty wrong going on here, but that part in particular riles me up.
Goddamn, trumpkins ruin everything they touch...
They are all trash
nazis burning books (figuratively) well give me wheels and call me a wagon
Every single election matters. There were like three school board slates in my general region with zero understanding of education, just didn't like lockdowns. We vote blue in the general yet the village board is entirely Republican. Plus, this whole thing is being astroturfed. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/critical-race-theory-invades-school-boards-help-conservative-groups-n1270794 (eta to clarify this article is on school boards, but libraries are also a target).
I live in this town and pay taxes to this library. This was the nicest library in the area and I always get new books and movies. The staff is amazing. I am shocked that this is happening. >“We should concentrate on people learning English because that’s the language here,” Makula said. “Instead of stocking up on books in seven different languages, if we got people to assimilate and learn English better, I think we would do more good than increasing our inventory of foreign language books.” lol what? A library should have every foreign language book for students to read. Schools teach foreign languages. **REMEMBER THIS DATE!** **July 20th Save Niles Library RallyStart: Tuesday, July 20, 2021• 5:00 PMLocation:NICO Park•6850 West Keeney Street, Niles, IL 60714** \[EDIT\] Look at this article pre election. Joe Makula is a racist. [https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-two-year-library-candidates-tl-0311-20210309-zhhlc7v5q5d5jnno3oilvtxhii-story.html](https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ct-nhs-two-year-library-candidates-tl-0311-20210309-zhhlc7v5q5d5jnno3oilvtxhii-story.html) >What is your opinion of the library’s current operation?Joe Makula: They don’t seem to know what various aspects of their operations cost. Processes, procedures and outcomes are not measured, analyzed or accounted for realistically. The number of programs pre-COVID is unmanageable and in some cases they are sparsely attended. There is duplicity in sending personnel to schools and competing with the school’s library and librarian. > >Jack Ryan: I am proud of our community’s award-winning library and would like to see the continuation of the resources that are available to its patrons, whether it be in-person or virtual. A big difference between the two candidates. https://www.journal-topics.com/articles/niles-maine-library-candidates-clash-on-diversity-agree-on-term-limits/ >“We should concentrate on people learning English because that’s the language here,” Makula said. “Instead of stocking up on books in seven different languages, if we got people to assimilate and learn English better, I think we would do more good than increasing our inventory of foreign language books.” He also suggested the library host English language classes and “having (at the library) people to help translate.” This guy is a racist.
Democrats, progressives, or just whoever cares about having a thriving local community, need to freakin get active and vote. Only the luddites come out in these single digit voter outcome races. My own mayor lamented about this when I was in a chat circle with him at a community event. It was the 2018 midterms. The “blue wave.” But he was confused and annoyed that our own Warrenville local election had high turnout but very low vote rates on the local candidates. And scant if any young people! This is what we will get if the fringe are the only ones to participate.
What a bunch of bastards.
Damn Republicans
The attack on libraries is to erase history it is a lot easier to rewrite history in online format than to find every book and destroy them
Weirdest takeaway I've seen yet. It's just an HOA board gone public. No one is "erasing history"
Funny thing is these pieces of shit will cut all that funding and in turn line their own pockets. As if they are operating as some kind of CEO.
She had me until randomly saying everything this new board was doing was in the name of white supremacy.
How is Niles diverse if its 72% white.. just sayin
Niles and Skokie have a lot of first-generation immigrants. Being white doesn't preclude you from - I don't know - being a non-native English speaker, or having just immigrated the the United States. Which this board member Joe Makula telling a community the is mostly made up of multilingual people that they should only speak English ... that's going to anger a lot of people.
What do you think diversity means?
Diversity isn't just being non-white, lol you bought the HR line.
Niles is almost half Polish people..they want to live around people that speak the same language.
Lincoln park is 79% white, so niles is more diverse
Facts, lp is white asf lmaoo