New Montgomery County Library Rules
Feb 4, 2011 15:38 - 4 Comments
In case you missed it this week, Montgomery County Public Libraries instituted new policies on February 1st regarding food and drink, cell phones, and your library account:
- Food and drink – other than water – is no longer permitted in the library, due to a decrease in the County’s ability to clean library branches.
- Cell phones must be set on vibrate as a courtesy to other library users.
- In order to ensure accuracy of library accounts, customers without their library cards must show proof of identity when checking out materials. Borrowers must have an active library account and be in good standing to check out materials. Customers should have their library cards in hand when checking out.
These all seem very reasonable. Cell phones shouldn’t be ringing and disturbing fellow patrons. But if they needed to make this rule formal, they must have been ringing. If you’re hungry or thirsty while in either of our Rockville libraries, you can easily pop over to local businesses for some refreshments.
And, of course, although not a new rule, though, Rockville is the only County library that charges for parking. I love the way our County Council is encouraging reading, by Rockvillians. I’ve also heard that ongoing sarcasm is a sign of depression. I guess I’d better make sure mine’s not ongoing; either that or I should get treatment for depression. Or maybe I should just “Get with it,” and that would get me over this. Ouch! My friends, who don’t live in Rockville, are really giving it to me about “Getting with it.” They say any publicity is better than no publicity. I don’t know, about this one, though.
So I personally never knew you wore aloud to bring food into the library. I did occasionally but I always felt…illegal while doing it. Now it’ll actually be against rules haha
Unfortunately the money the library used to have for cleaning has been cut drastically - as has the rest of the library’s budget. Asking people to refrain from eating and drinking anything other than water is a preventitive measure so that the carpets and furnishings will last. It is a no cost solution that hopefully will be effective.
Rockville is not the only library that has to pay for parking, the Bethesda library patrons also have to pay. The way the plans are now, when the Silver Spring library opens, it too will have paid parking.
You can help the library in several ways. 1. Sign the petition to the county council at the Rockville Library on Feb 19th asking them not to cut the library’s budget. 2. Join the Rockville or Twinbrook Friends of the library 3. Donate money to buy books for the library. 4. There are many other ways to help including buying books at the Twinbrook and Rockville book sales. Rockville’s next big sale will be March 12 from 10-3. All libraries have an ongoing “honor” book sale. Just take the books you like and put the payment for them in the cash box next to the book shelf. You can even put in extra!
Please email [email protected] for questions and information concerning how you can help.
The big message should be “do not reduce the library budget so much.” If there is mismanagement, it must to be solved. We know there is waste in the county government that could be eliminated. If more people would speak out about the unnecessary services, action could be taken. Unfortunately revealing the truth can cost one to lose ones job and many times individuals’ report gets ignored.
No one should have been eating in the library and cutting back on cleaning to 3 times a week versus daily is a fiscally responsible decision. The Library are for books and computers and NOT food.
My living expenses are increasing with no increase in income. This means I have to make tough decisions on how to spend my money. It should be no different with our government’s funds.
I do my part in volunteering where I can. There is much citizen can do to help. More of them need to become involved, not just by joining an organization, but being active and sharing their concerns to make our community better.
It is time to evaluate how our tax dollars are spent. New policies will need to be implemented. Some changes will need to be accepted. Priorities will need to shift and we need to let the decision makers know which ones we believe are most important.
Aileen, thank you for asking individuals to join the Twinbrook Friends of the Library. We can use more active members. To join individuals can visit the Twinbrook Library and sign up.