NH Library Board Member Report Will Shock You

A few months ago I came across the River Channel's posting of the Hudson Library board and endured the first hour.  In that meeting a staff member reviewed the numbers for traffic and checkouts at what we like to call the "Library Knudson Built."  What was startling about "why" people visit, is that the check-out line is filled with people borrowing movies and music in massive numbers.

In the above video, North Hudson Board Representative and community lightning rod Curt Weese points out one possibly very troubling and expensive taxpayer service:  interlibrary resource lending may be costing the taxpayers $67,400 this year to swap Hollywood's movies.  According to Weiss,

"The thing that's bothered me a little bit about what I've seen is that, and I think the same thing is going to hold true with this Moore Consortium its called (the organization that runs the interlibrary exchange), or Indianhead Federated Library system, is that a good percentage of that is video-it's a video exchange.  And if it turns out to be a video exchange I don't think that's what it was intended for, but it turned out to be that way just as a lot of videos are now being rented for free from a library that put two video stores out of business."

The fun starts at 7:15 but the entire video of stupid pet trick decisions by the library board, including a budget $37,437 in the red that included 2% raises, is a must view for date night.

For those of you out there who think the laws on the books ought to be followed, you should know that the music at the library, borrowed for free, is likely being taken home by patrons and uploaded to their iTunes account (permanently) before being returned.  We used to call that copyright infringement.  Of course when government libraries do it we call it serving the community.

I revel in the irony that CISPA and SOPA, two bills addressing online music pirating and voted for by Congressman Duffy (both died in the Senate), had no mention of the criminal librarians across America in the legislation.

So we are clear, you the taxpayer, are paying for a library that was at least in part (you really have to see the volume they put out in video and music checkout) responsible for closing two tax producing entities (not to mention what Lady Gaga will do without the revenue) and is spending nearly 68K this year so your neighbor can borrow Transformers from Eau Claire's library, for free.  Please don't tell me you think this is taxpayer money well spent.

One last question:  when did Santa Clause start running North Hudson's Village Board Meetings?

Download the movie