Largest library closure in U.S. looms

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Pat Hardy hefted two book bags stuffed with "cozy murder mysteries" through the snow to Ella Fitzsimmons' front door at the Blue Spruce Mobile Estates trailer park.

"I brought you extra, because this will be your last delivery," said Hardy, who has been bringing the bloodless whodunits to the homebound 78-year-old every month for the last several years.

Fitzsimmons' literary lifeline will be cut April 7, when Jackson County in southern Oregon shuts down its entire public library system.

The 15 libraries serving this rural forest community lost $7 million in federal funding this year - nearly 80 percent of the system's budget.

Now, not long after all 15 branches were rebuilt or remodeled after rebuilding or remodeling all 15 branches, every one will be shuttered in what's being calledtouted as the largest library shutdown in the United States. The crisis in southern Oregon can be traced not only to changing funding priorities on Capitol Hill, but also to crooked railroad deals in the Wild West, a spotted owl and a shrinking timber harvest.

The struggles of book socialism.