One of the members of county council that voted in favor of the Gannon lease said in a private meeting that it wasn’t fair to residents of the county that the main library was located in the city of Erie. This, despite the fact that a large number of county residents work in the city or city-adjacent. I wonder how he feels about the fact that county residents have to drive into the city for jury duty–but I digress. The Erie County Library System has 4 branches–Edinboro, Lincoln, Iroquois and Millcreek. Three of those four are owned by the county, with Millcreek located in the Millcreek Mall complex and looking to re-locate in eventually in a county-owned facility. The infrastructure and programming for those branches are located at the main branch on the bayfront.
As recently discussed the in post “Anchor Tenants”, the county executive considers the Blasco Library and Erie Maritime Museum to be only tenants in a building which was built as their home. So if you are a county resident and don’t live in the city, think about it. What does this mean for the branches? Wouldn’t they be considered “anchor tenants” in their own buildings as well? We’ve seen how much the county executive values libraries ($7 per square foot, among other examples). How much is your local branch worth?
“Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.”
~Anne Herbert
Keep Our Library Public! 