{"id":27378,"date":"2016-09-19T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T15:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/alaska-editorial-ketchikan-library-needs-support\/"},"modified":"2016-09-19T08:00:22","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T15:00:22","slug":"alaska-editorial-ketchikan-library-needs-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/opinion\/alaska-editorial-ketchikan-library-needs-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska Editorial: Ketchikan library needs support"},"content":{"rendered":"

This editorial originally ran in the Ketchikan Daily News:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ketchikan\u2019s library is a showpiece enjoyed throughout the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, including outside of city limits.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say it\u2019s a Taj Mahal. It isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a building reasonable in every way \u2014 size, design, color and location \u2014 for this community. Inside, it is a setting perfect for reading, studying, quietly contemplating or combing the shelves for books, music and movies.<\/p>\n

The community supports the library, which was evident at this week\u2019s Borough Assembly meeting. More than 50 residents showed up, taking time away from their jobs and personal lives, to encourage the borough\u2019s decision to continue to provide library funds in addition to the city\u2019s contribution.<\/p>\n

For each of the 50 residents who showed up to seek the funds another 50 to 100 likely didn\u2019t because of conflicting time commitments.<\/p>\n

The Assembly listened politely and should be applauded for its decision to continue its financial support for the library for another year. Recognizing that state funding is less than in previous years and that, if the trend downward continues, balancing revenue and expenses will become more difficult, it isn\u2019t easy to continue to support what might not be viewed as a necessity.<\/p>\n

But such services as those that libraries provide are even more valuable to residents when finances become tight. Libraries loan all manner of educational and entertaining materials, which might be purchased individually if personal budgets allowed. They are a means to enhanced experiences in good and bad financial times.<\/p>\n

Right now the borough can afford to pay a share of the cost of operating the library. And, because it can, it will. And its support is appreciated.<\/p>\n

Despite all of the government on this island, Ketchikan is one community with a single library. It\u2019s available to all of us and it\u2019s up to all of us to support it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This editorial originally ran in the Ketchikan Daily News<\/a>: Ketchikan\u2019s library is a showpiece enjoyed throughout the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, including outside of city limits. That\u2019s not to say it\u2019s a Taj Mahal. It isn\u2019t. It\u2019s a building reasonable in every way \u2014 size, design, color and location \u2014 for this community. Inside, it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-27378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27378"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=27378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}