Parking Fees Will Curtail Library Visits

I entered Los Angeles Central Library at 2 p.m. and left the library at 7:30 p.m. Parking cost: $28.05. The library was way underused in comparison with the weekends. Really empty. Staff doing very little.

I had a true library experience, though. Went in search of books on Plato’s Symposium, one of the more important works of our Western civilization. Found books, which I took out, that I did not know about, except for their being on a shelf next to books I did know about. What a joy! Finding the unexpected, which can only happen by being in an open library. Invited two friends to come some distance and enjoy with me the experience of the treasures and resources of this great library. They won’t be back. I will never do it again. I can’t afford to do it again!

A treasure largely not used to its capacity. Is the same true of the main library in New York? In my visits there, it is busy day and night. But $28.05--outrageous!

Thomas Seehof

Woodland Hills