Ghetto Library

I was told yesterday that my library is "ghetto." Probably so. It is in a poorer part of town. Our mayor even recently had our city classified as "blighted." We don't make a lot of money and we don't order 7,000 copies of any book (even Harry Potter). One woman got mad because we don't own a fax machine. I told her that there is another library within five miles or so that does have a fax machine and she got mad because she lives in this city. I also told her two places within one block of our library that have a fax machine and she proceeded to storm out of the library mumbling about how you can't even get a book in our library and it's just "ghetto."

Dictionary.com defines ghetto as "a section of a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships." Technically our library cannot be ghetto without declaring the rest of the city ghetto. By admitting to live in our city and declaring that we are "ghetto" she has declared herself as part of the minority group that is contributing to the label.

As far as the book she wanted...I have no idea what it was. She never asked for a book while she was in. Probably the latest "Thug" or "Gangsta'" book.