This is the best news I’ve heard all day:
Because of staffing issues, the genealogy library was going to operate fewer hours than the rest of the library. That issue has been resolved, [spokeswoman Trisha] Noack said, in part with volunteer workers, and it will now be open whenever the Main Library is open, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
My sincere thanks to the library board and staff for resolving this issue. I complained pretty bitterly about plans to make this section less accessible than before the library’s $28 million expansion/renovation. It’s only fair that they now be commended for listening to the public (I wasn’t the only one who complained) and making the necessary adjustments to keep this vital resource as accessible as possible.
Better yet, gone are the summer hours!
I just wished they were open later in the evening. For those of us who work, 6 PM doesn’t give us a lot of time during the week.
how do you justify that taxpayer’s money to staff the library’s genealogy and history section is “vital” but the museum will be “sucking more money from taxpayers”. seems if you don’t support one, you shouldn’t support the other.
Rolly — Apples and oranges.
The museum that taxpayers are paying for is overly broad in scope, overpriced, inefficiently designed, and poorly sited. I am on record as having supported a Peoria history museum, utilizing an existing historic building or even housed in a properly sited (i.e., urban) new building downtown. Alas, that’s not what we’re getting. We’re getting a relocated Lakeview with a small history exhibit added and less space for storage of artwork and historic artifacts. Taxpayers were promised (even though it was a lie) a self-sufficient museum which relied on the brand recognition of IMAX. Taxpayers were just going to be paying for the capital costs of building the museum, and that was supposed to come from the money approved by referendum. Now that IMAX has been replaced with a no-name theater, it’s going to be operating even more in the red, and they’re going to come back to the taxpayers looking for more money to cover their operational expenses. That’s “sucking more money from taxpayers.”
The library, on the other hand, got less money than taxpayers approved by referendum, yet has stayed within its budget, and has managed to provide access to the genealogy and history section without asking the taxpayers for any additional funds.
C.J., you left out the fact that, in the past and presumably now, the geneology dept. was staffed by unpaid volunteers.
C.J., I’m surpised you havent blogged about the council vote tomorrow to change Loucks to a 2-way street between Sheridan and McClure. I’m glad they’re fixing some roads, even if it’s a small section, but I’m wondering how it’s going to help the Sheridan triangle business district. It seems like small potatoes to me.