In Steinbeck's Birthplace, a Fight to Keep the Libraries Open

SALINAS, CA -- The reputation of this farming community, known as the Salad Bowl of the World, has been burnished by giants of American history like the civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, who organized the area's farmworkers, and John Steinbeck, a native son who borrowed images from the landscape and Depression-era residents in writing "The Grapes of Wrath."

Dolores Huerta speaks under a painting of girls reading outside Cesar Chavez Public Library in East Salinas, Calif., Saturday, April 2, 2005. The weekend ``read-in'' at the Cesar Chavez branch is designed to draw attention to the plight of the city's three libraries, which the City Council voted late last year to close this June. (AP Photo/ Monterey County Herald, David Royal)

The pride, fear and hope Steinbeck described were in evidence this weekend as residents, celebrities and best-selling authors gathered for a 24-hour emergency read-in to try to avert an unwelcome footnote to Salinas's legacy: the impending closing of the city's three public libraries.

Unless the city can raise $500,000 by June 30, the John Steinbeck, Cesar Chavez and El Gabilan Libraries will be shuttered, victims of the city's $9 million budget shortfall. If the branches are closed, Salinas will become the nation's largest city without a public library.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0404-02.htm

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