Regional Library

Even on dreary afternoons, when rain splashes against the windows and traffic crawls along Crain Highway, Jean Guite has plenty of time to relax with a book at work.Only a dozen faithful readers usuallyshow up at the Kuethe Reading Center each day, even on rainy days that seem best suited to curling up with a book. Guite, a librarian who works twice a week at the 59-year-old library, often has more than an hour free between customers."There just aren't that many people who come here," she said.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library will announce this morning a multimillion-dollar plan to build four regional library centers, one in each quadrant of the city, and provide dramatic upgrades in computer access to all libraries in the system.Pratt officials said they will probably close some branches to streamline services, although they said no specific buildings have been targeted.The decade-long construction would provide the Pratt its first new buildings in more than 25 years. The program, estimated to cost $35 million-$45 million, is to be financed primarily through the sale of city bond issues, said Carla D. Hayden, the library's director.

A yellow cardboard sign stuck on a vending machine in a supermarket foyer offers a clue to the worries of many Highlandtown residents. "Save Our Store," it demands, circled by the signatures of dozens of area residents and a passionate message scribbled on it by one of them: "Seniors need a store close by where we don't have to go out of our way to get groceries!" The sign, the signatures and the message are a reaction to plans for a regional library -- a high-tech, roughly 35,000-square-foot building -- scheduled to be built in Southeast Baltimore during the next two years.

For want of enough books, a new library planned for the Long Point Mall on Mountain Road will not open in June as originally planned.The county has purchased only a quarter of the branch's planned 40,000-book collection, and may not have the money to buy the rest, Library Director Ed Hall said."

A yellow cardboard sign stuck on a vending machine in a supermarket foyer offers a clue to the worries of many Highlandtown residents. "Save Our Store," it demands, circled by the signatures of dozens of area residents and a passionate message scribbled on it by one of them: "Seniors need a store close by where we don't have to go out of our way to get groceries!" The sign, the signatures and the message are a reaction to plans for a regional library -- a high-tech, roughly 35,000-square-foot building -- scheduled to be built in Southeast Baltimore during the next two years.

THE RECENT closing of Haussner's robbed the Highlandtown neighborhood of its 73-year-old landmark restaurant. That's why a wave of development on Eastern Avenue is so encouraging.The Enoch Pratt Free Library has announced plans to construct its first regional "super library" at Eastern Avenue and Eaton Street. The $8 million library should open in 2003.The multimillion-dollar conversion of the old Patterson Theater into a cultural arts center has started. When completed in 2001, the complex will include a 150-seat theater, an art gallery and caf plus 11 studios for artists.

ODENTON AND CROFTON residents got an unexpected holiday present just before Christmas when Anne Arundel County Executive John G. Gary promised regional libraries for both communities within the next two years."

IT IS ENTIRELY appropriate that the Baltimore area now cheers for the only pro football team whose name was inspired by a literary character.From Baltimore, whose Enoch Pratt Free Library was lauded as a "pioneer" by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie at the turn of the century, to suburban systems, which are among the busiest and best-supported in the nation, this region has a grand tradition when it comes to public libraries.What follows is a summary of challenges area systems face as they try to maintain that high ground:Building anew in BaltimoreThe inauguration in November of a large library in Cherry Hill will mark the first time in 27 years that the Pratt has opened a newly built branch.

Citizens using force to protect property is not `vigilantism' The Sun's editorial "Just say `no' to vigilantism" (April 10) was designed to sensationalize the non-problem of citizens defending their property against felons. Burglary is still a felony in Maryland. The brothers Matthew and Dominic Geckle were exercising their police power as citizens under the common law to halt felons engaged in burglary, using any force necessary. Whether social engineers like this or not, this police power is a foundation of our legal system.

Chocolate Lovers Festival It's a chocolate lover's dream. A chocolate lover's paradise. A chocolate lover's utopia. It's the Chocolate Lovers Festival, taking place Saturday and Feb. 5 in Fairfax, Va. The annual festival features the "Taste of Chocolate" event with chocolate vendors offering taste samples and selling their treats at Old Town Hall, 3999 University Drive; the "Chocolate Challenge" event in which folks can create works of art from chocolate...