Relentless Inquiry

Comments filed at http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/_forms/li1.aspx

I am very sad after reading more of the Focus Groups and the Building Plan. I wonder if anyone asked these focus group people how many times they go to any library, and specifically to the Sunnyvale Library.

The whole point of cheaper computers and cheaper bandwidth is that using the library to ‘provide’ technology is in itself obsolete. People with bluetooth devices are going to use the built-in bluetooth in their $300 laptops in a decade, at home, or on the municipal free WiFi (by the city or by Google or similar). If they want to access special subscription databases like MedLine, they’ll log into the library’s access points with their library card. I saw new reqs for an IT Manager, to manage all the new technology sprinkled around the library (seats 2, tech 2, in the NEW BOOK section?!, when there are too few seats now, with 6 – 8 chairs?). I didn’t see any mention of the network and computing infrastructure the library will need to interface with its patrons *in their own homes* to provide services on *their* computers– why make them come in? Oh, right, you’re trying to be a community center, even though we HAVE one. (sigh)

And the person who wants to drink Green Tea in the Atrium while her grandchildren browse in the children’s book section– I’m sure many people would like free daycare, but that doesn’t mean the library is the place to provide it. Or is Grampa watching the grandkids?

String quartets, acting, “activities”– Sunnyvale wants a performing arts community center. Go out and build one, but don’t try to graft it onto the LIBRARY of the future.

Go to Borders, or Barnes & Noble, if you want to read books for free in a cafe atmosphere.

I will enjoy the library while I can, before they ruin it building a ‘Library of the Future’. 😦

Just one more thing– do you think that an ARCHITECTURE FIRM is NOT going to recommend BUILDING MORE STUFF? Let’s let the rabbits figure out what percent of the garden should be carrots vs potatoes. Use one firm for the study and disqualify it from bidding. Or use a professional study firm. My jaw quite literally dropped when I saw that the architects were running the focus groups. Lo, I am dumbfounded. O brave new world, that has such wonders in it.