A NorthCountryNow.com “SoundOff” on taxpayer funding of the Potsdam Library has drawn a response from a national library blogger.

“No taxpayer support for libraries,” which argues that taxpayers should not have to fund “non-essential niceties,” was the target of a recent post by the Annoyed Librarian, a blogger for the national professional publication Library Journal.

“There are really two issues here, whether libraries are essential services, and whether taxes should go to support anything that isn’t an essential service,” said Annoyed Librarian.

“The assumption that taxes should go only to ‘essential services’ is contrary to the practice of just about every government that has existed in the past century, and perhaps ever.”

The author acknowledges that libraries aren’t “essential” when compared to other important services like police, but says surveys show that people don’t want to live in towns without libraries.

“However, time and time again when people are surveyed, it’s obvious that most people wouldn’t want to live in those towns, even the people who don’t use public libraries,” she said.

“Of the non-essential services, libraries might be the most popular of all, except maybe for sports stadiums. And unlike sports stadiums, libraries bring some positive return on investment. They’re almost like essential non-essential services.”

She also specifically notes the history of the Potsdam Library. “Potsdam must think so, because according to [the library’s webpage] the public library has existed there since 1896. That predates most of the Carnegie libraries in the U.S. and shows that Potsdamians have long liked their library.”

Library Journal is a national publication that covers changes in library technology, management, policy, and other professional concerns.

For the full response, visit the Library Journal.