libraries for sale? how commerce affects public services

Knowledge for Sale: Are America’s Public Libraries on the Verge of Losing Their Way? [pdf] Utne reader article by Chris Dodge former Hennepin County [MN] librarian and current Utne Reader Librarian. Very very good. You might also recognize a familiar face or two [hi Jenna!] in an articfle in the same issue The New Monastic Librarians [pdf]. What do they mean by monastic? Dodge Explains

Like those who once copied texts as a way to save them for a more enlightened time, a cadre of “new monastic individuals” must take up the task of protecting the knowledge they love.