Solution Needed to Library Funding

* In recent months, there have been several reports of Ventura city and county officials conducting meetings to decide the future of our deteriorating public library system. Yet, nothing has changed. In fact, our libraries have gotten worse.

For instance, the county can no longer afford to pay for the Wright Library’s computerized magazine index. This means that if a student or interested adult needs to look up recently published information about a particular topic, he or she cannot quickly access a computerized list of topics found in the computer index. Instead, one must slowly leaf through the voluminous Reader’s Guides, a tedious and time-consuming process.

An educated citizenry is a cornerstone of any democracy, yet without ample access to books and periodicals, our youth will lack the reading and research skills necessary to be informed participants in the democratic process. I urge that all voters who are fed up with the current library situation contact their elected officials to emphasize the importance of finding a solution now.

ANNETTE HALPERN

Ventura