While March 20 was the official beginning of spring, it is also the official dark day of the dumbing down of San Diego. From the 11th floor of City Hall, the heart of the decision-making, to the outlying communities that are the heartbeat of the city, the main library downtown will be shuttered on Saturdays for the next 18 months, and all branch libraries will be cruelly closed on Mondays for the same period of time. The city budget ax was wielded on the library system again. When I open the door of a library in La Jolla or University City or anywhere in this country, I am always amazed at what I get as a taxpayer: newspapers and periodicals, books, of course, DVDs, activities for me and my adult children, story time and loving librarians helping my grandchildren become readers and researchers. My University Community library has a meeting room I visit monthly as a member of a community association board. Three schools surround my library. With critical cuts in school librarian talent, I am glad these students in elementary, middle school and high school have our public library. Having had a love affair with libraries since I was a child, that love endures today. “Librarians are soldiers of truth, universal literacy and privacy,” according to writer Salter Reynolds. Librarians are described as “being watched over by angels.” Friends of the Library at both La Jolla and University Community library assist the “angels” by providing extras: activities, funds for books, movie afternoons and whatever their librarians deem important for the patrons. I understand the unprecedented economic crisis crushing cities across the country, but I do not understand San Diego closing Central Library on busy Saturdays or closing all branch libraries on Mondays. La Jolla, Serra Mesa, and Point Loma have endowments that will keep their Sunday hours open. University Community library cannot afford the $150,000 three year commitment to have the library open on Sundays at $50,000 a year. Going to the library is going to a superior social system. Many media leaders, some City Council representatives and mayoral appointees in San Diego see libraries as being replaced by corporate bookstores or the Internet. Obviously, these folks haven’t been to a library to witness the large crowds of diverse backgrounds. With Mayor Sanders’ experience as a policeman, he knows that you pay for social services up front, libraries, park and rec for our youth especially, or you may end up paying for social services on the way out in the form of Juvenile Hall. Where will the children go on Mondays? Many families don’t own computers and their children depend on libraries for these services. How many latchkey kids look forward to going to the library on Mondays to be in the company of caring adults? Children don’t vote, however. How many staff members, mostly women, will see the cut in hours as watering down literacy and opportunity to learn for all generations. University Community lost its talented head librarian and now its talented youth services librarian must wear two hats, serving children and serving as head librarian. This would not happen at La Jolla’s library. In two days of November 2008, when University Community library was scheduled to be closed for lack of visitors, over 1,000 people signed a petition to keep U.C.’s library open. In every community in San Diego, libraries give a positive identity to a community. Shutter a library and who would want to move into the neighborhood? Cut the hours and staff, and you take away the opportunity for people to have a safe place to visit, freedom to do a myriad of things: use a computer, find a job, research a topic, talk to a real person, a dying art in our high tech environment, read and learn. Compare our city libraries to our county libraries. Poway’s library is open 61 hours a week, including 4 hours on Sunday. With the exception of privately-endowed libraries like La Jolla, Serra Mesa and Point Loma, all other city libraries will be open a pathetic 36 hours a week. Imperial Beach’s county library is open 54 hours a week. Privatizing the staff of libraries has been suggested by some people concerned about the ever increasing deficit in our city by the sea. Libraries are more spiritual in nature, like a house of worship, than a business with the bottom line as the goal, but perhaps we need to look at this option. Riverside County outsourced library services in 1997 by hiring Library Systems and Services, Inc., a Maryland-based operation. All library employees, except the county librarian, janitorial service and landscape maintenance company, work for LSSI. Library hours were increased, staff was added and the library system was divided into three districts. Temecula Public Library is open 63 hours a week. Grace Mellman Community Library is open 41 hours. If government is to serve the people instead of serving itself, then those who govern should listen to the people. “We want our libraries!” is a rallying cry of fairness, not a selfish mandate. It is a cry from people that this core service is critical to the community, especially when we see our social safety net slipping away. San Diego County continues to keep the doors of its libraries open even though the county has suffered the same economic crisis our city has. The city of San Diego should drape the doors of our libraries in black as a sign of mourning of yet another step backwards in this latest dumbing down of our city.