Another sad day for Illinois libraries

In an open letter Alice Calabrese Berry, executive director of Metropolitan Library System, which serves the city of Chicago, DuPage County and areas of southern Cook count announced that they suspending most of their services as of June 30, 2010. 95% of their operating costs comes from a grant from the State of Illinois. The State has not paid the promised money and there is no indication that they money will arrive before December. See http://ennounce.mls.lib.il.us/ for the full letter.

Library Systems started in Illinois in 1966. They have saved money and shared expertise. No single library can afford to do everything. Resources and expertise must be shared. Libraries are good investments.