The relative value of libraries?
According to Utah’s Desert News, the Salt Lake City public library system was named 2006 Library of the Year by a ‘national library journal and a research firm’. The $10,000 prize will go towards sending some staff to a conference.
Which is pretty nice for them (the honor of the title, and the prize money). But each of the 6 winners of the Goldman Environmental Awards gets $125,000; the Templeton Prize (for “progress towards research or discoveries about spiritual reality) is worth $1.4 million; even the John Lennon Songwriting Contest pays the winner $20,000.
So who else won $10,000? Fantasy Baseball players, the Harris Poll Online Sweepstakes winner, heck - you can even make $10,000 with a recipe!
Surely the 2006 Library of the Year should be graced with more than this token amount? At the barest minimum, it should have been granted sufficient funding to send ALL of its staff somewhere really nice on a holiday for a few weeks, as WELL as paying the WHOLE amount for the conference.