Steinbeck's hard-pressed hometown is closing the books

Facing record deficits, the City Council voted Dec. 14 to shut all three of Salinas's libraries, including the branches named after Steinbeck and labor leader Cesar Chavez. The blue-collar community of 150,000 could become the most populous US city without a public library.

Salinas, nicknamed "salad bowl to the nation" for the lettuce and broccoli fields nearby, is the 1902 birthplace of the Nobel Prize-winning author of "Cannery Row" and "Of Mice and Men." Steinbeck, who died in 1968, described the region as "pastures of heaven" and memorialized Salinas in his 1952 novel "East of Eden."

But since Nov. 2, when voters rejected a half-cent increase in the sales tax to preserve city services, Salinas has drawn the scorn of bibliophiles around the world. Editorials in newspapers from New Zealand to London have condemned the closings.

"It's embarrassing, not to mention inconvenient," said Ben Lopez, 69, a Salinas resident since 1945 who visits the Steinbeck branch at least twice a week. "Where else will I go to check out material -- Prunedale?" he said, referring to a relatively spartan branch of the Monterey County Free Libraries system.

Because of Salinas's large number of poor farmworkers and immigrants, the city's libraries are popular with people seeking citizenship primers, literacy courses, English language tapes, Internet access, and after-school programs. Roughly 1,900 people visit on an average day.

"The reality is that we live in a blue-collar community where people are struggling, and they're afraid of new taxes," Mayor Anna Caballero said. "I don't think they realized the enormity of what we were facing."

Libraries nationwide are struggling. According to an April study by the Chicago-based American Library Association, libraries in 41 states absorbed more than $50 million in funding cuts in the past year. More than 1,100 libraries have reduced operating hours or cut staff.

Because of cutbacks in state funding combined with rapid growth in Salinas and rising healthcare costs, the city cut $8 million from its budget in the last year and faces another $8 million reduction in its $60 million overall spending plan for fiscal 2006.

All three library branches are set to close by May or June. Nearly three dozen employees will lose their jobs.

Some residents are hoping a private donor will rescue the library. Librarians are considering seeking corporate sponsorship.