Folks Are Flocking to the Library, Here in San Joaquin!

Newspapers and magazines around the country have been reporting the dramatic increase of library patronage in the last year. The historical role libraries have played in economically depressed times are now been witnessed once again. More than ever individuals are turning to their local libraries in search of the tools to help themselves and their families. The Wall Street Journal published an article today bearing witness to these events here in San Joaquin Country and around the country.

Folks Are Flocking to the Library, a Cozy Place to Look for a Job

By JIM CARLTON
Wall Street Journal

TRACY, Calif. — The financial crisis has caused a lot of withdrawals at the public library.

A few years ago, public libraries were being written off as goners. The Internet had made them irrelevant, the argument went. But libraries across the country are reporting jumps in attendance of as much as 65% over the past year, as newly unemployed people flock to branches to fill out résumés and scan ads for job listings.

Other recession-weary patrons are turning to libraries for cheap entertainment — killing time with the free computers, video rentals and, of course, books.

Last Friday, there was a particularly long waiting list of 157 to check out the popular vampire novel “Twilight,” by Stephenie Meyer, from a branch of the Stockton-San Joaquin County Library here in Tracy. This central California town has been ravaged by mortgage foreclosures, and area libraries report a surge of traffic. Shamika Miller huddled over a laptop at the Tracy branch. Laid off from her job as a bookkeeper at Home Depot more than a year ago, Ms. Miller, 29 years old, says she has visited the library “if not every day, every other day” since October to check job listings with her computer.

“I come here, first of all, because it’s a free Wi-Fi spot,” says Ms. Miller, who supports a 10-year-old daughter on her unemployment compensation. And, she says, “there’s something about the library that helps you think, at least for me.”

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