Letters for Wednesday, December 17, 2025 |
Library needs to stop cutting services
Once again, the Schenectady County Public Library (SCPL) wants to destroy a valuable library program.
Last year, it cut off our access to the library materials in the Mohawk Valley Library System (MVLS) and the Southern Adirondack Library System. Now it wants to severely restrict our access to the e-books and audiobooks from the MVLS Overdrive collection starting on Jan. 1, 2026.
Why is it doing this? Because it claims that only its own Overdrive collection has the e-books and audiobooks that SCPL patrons want.
This is nonsense. I compiled a list of about 50 popular authors of adult fiction.
For almost all of the authors, the MVLS Overdrive collection has far more e-book titles than the Schenectady library.
For example, James Patterson (a hugely popular author): MVLS owns 146 e-books while SCPL owns just 23; John Grisham: MVLS owns 39 e-books while SCPL owns........