Be informed when you go to the polls on November 6. The referendum to expand Mary Cheney Library is on the ballot. Take this True or False Test to see how much you know about how libraries have changed and about the Mary Cheney Library expansion. Then, you decide where you stand. I’m supporting the expansion.
1. Close to 70% of America’s public libraries now say their staff help patrons complete job applications online, and the same number offer help with résumés.
2. Mary Cheney Library has over 1,000 visitors each day. It has the fourth largest circulation in the state.
3. Manchester has over 1,000 acres of parkland. The library expansion will take up only an .08 of an acre. That is only 8/100’s of an acre.
4. In Connecticut, as in the rest of the country, books still make up the vast majority of library collections — 14.2 million books to 927,000 movies — but movies have a much higher circulation rate.
5. The Cheney family deeded the northern section of the Park for municipal buildings.
6. The Manchester Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Business group are in favor of the library expansion in Center Memorial Park.
7. E Books represent only 1% of library circulation. Public libraries in the United States lend an average 2.1 million videos every day, slightly more than the 2 million that Netflix ships.
8. Over the past few years, hard-hit Americans have been economising by cancelling their broadband contracts at home and looking to public libraries to fill the gap.
9. National per person visitation and circulation in libraries have both increased solidly over the past decade, a trend that would not necessarily have been predicted given the rise of the Internet and the increased presence of large booksellers over the same period.
10. The bond for the expansion of the Mary Cheney Library will cost the average taxpayer $32 per year.
Answers: All of the above statements are true. Now, see how much you just learned about libraries!
