I was alarmed to learn of the abrupt withdrawal of the Santa Barbara Public Library from the Black Gold system, following the lead of the San Luis Obispo library. It is hard to believe, as they allege, that our city library will be able satisfy the needs of its patrons entirely from its own collection, no matter how fast they are able to buy new books. There are many readers who want to retrieve older books and over the years there have been frequent occasions when books that I requested came from other libraries in the county.
Thus I was glad to learn that the Goleta library is staying in the Black Gold system and they have informed me that, after July 1, residents of the City of Santa Barbara will be able to get library cards at Goleta and thereby retain their access to Black Gold. Many thanks to the Goleta library for opening up its doors to us.