I have many fortifying memories of the Joel Valdez Library and the plaza that fronts it, which is named for the enterprising Jácome family and contains a striking red metal sculpture, but on April 5, 2021, as I sat in a black car across the street from that library and noted how its white façade …
In 2013 I was in the public library in Youngstown, Ohio, noticing something that would surprise any regular user of Pima County Public Library (PCPL) – old books. Specifically, in this case, several old books by the popular British playwright Noel Coward, including multiple copies of his celebrated play, “Blithe Spirit.” At that time I …
Read moreNoel Coward Reveals Bankruptcy of Library’s Book Collection Policy
January 23, 2018 Dear Devoted Reader, For a number of years now I have been describing and protesting the intentional degradation of Pima County Public Library as a library (that is, a place that should first and foremost have a variety of books and magazines, as opposed to a place that has meeting rooms, “entrepreneurial …
Read moreMy Not So Merry Correspondence with our Public Library; or, Virtue Unrewarded
It all started innocently enough. I and some other members of the Tucson Chapter of the National Writers Union had been noticing that books which we’d been intending to or had already read — written by some very established international and “mid-list” literary authors — were disappearing from our public library’s shelves to, it seemed, …
Read moreAre Billionaire Foundations Dumbing Down Our Public Library?