Anyone at Friday's 'press conference' knows that the event that took place was far different than what was reported by the news media. If you only saw the news, you would have no idea that SOL released two confidential, controversial proposals-- which happened and was actual news. Instead, it was reported that SOL had complaints about the move to a 35% allocation for digital material (old news!) and one station reported that the 35% allocation was a proposal! (?) Another station reported that the board meeting will be held on Sunday, January 22 (It is actually on Monday, January 23.) It was sad to see how the truth was contorted to fit into the perimeters of their two minute news story. Watching it you would think that SOL is a bunch of luddites who hated the mere mention of e-readers. For the record, SOL is not against digital readers and actually embraces the new technology. There are much bigger issues at stake--branch closures, staff layoffs, elimination of paper books (here's a visual of how many: imagine all the books at Rockton Center, Montague, Rock River, Lewis Lemon, and the top two floors of Main... now imagine all of those books out of RPL's system!!!)... these are the issues that we tried to bring to light on Friday with the press conference.
Since the news was not reported about the proposals, SOL has scanned copies of both proposals and will post it here on the blog as soon as possible. (Hopefully tomorrow.) People need to read what our public library's director has in mind for the future of the Rockford Public Library. It is terrifying. Stay tuned.
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