For Mary Carlon, Jackson County's libraries closed Friday.
That was the day a library worker arrived to take away the Medford retiree's last allotment of books in preparation for the final shuttering of all 15 branches at the end of the day Friday.
Carlon relies on an outreach program that delivers books and other materials each month to up to 800 blind, disabled and elderly people who are unable to go to a local library.
"It's an awful loss," said Carlon, a former first-grade teacher at Oak Grove Elementary who remembers taking her own students to the library. "I can't imagine living in a community without libraries."
Carlon, who is "over 80," said she particularly depends on the library for large-print books because of her failing eyesight, which prevents her from driving to her local branch.
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"This is the worst that there has ever been," Sheketoff said.
Jackson County's libraries are some of the newest in the nation, with 14 branches remodeled or rebuilt after voters approved a $38.9 million bond measure in 2000.
Sheketoff said libraries generally are expanding in most cities, offering greater Internet access, outreach to local community groups and increased access to audiotapes and films.
"And now you're having Jackson County take a tremendous step backwards, said Sheketoff. Josephine County also plans to close its libraries down this year because of budget problems.
In Oregon, 9 percent of the population doesn't have access to free library service, she said.
Closing libraries isn't sitting well with many Jackson County residents, who plan to hold reading vigils, pass out "Seeds of Hope" packets and stage other events at branches throughout the system this week.
A parade and reading vigil are planned from 5 to 6 p.m. Friday to mark the close of the Eagle Point Library. A symbolic padlock fashioned out of wood will be clasped on the locked doors. The lock was made by Virginia Brown, a library clerk who also made some of the furniture in the Eagle Point branch on her own time.
"I'm sick at heart about the whole thing," said Brown.
Her library, like most branches, has noticed a drop-off in business in recent weeks after limits were placed on the number of books checked out.
"People have been coming in less and less, and the people who do come in are in tears," said Brown, who has been notified that she'll be losing her job. "It's really sad because the library is the mainstay of Eagle Point."
Brown, 57, has lived off and on in the Rogue Valley since 1959. She plans to wait and see whether voters approve a May 15 library levy or whether federal lawmakers reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act, which pumped $23 million into county coffers annually. The money helped pay for libraries, sheriff's patrols and roads.
Voters in November rejected a levy that would have kept libraries open if the federal money failed to be renewed.
Brown, whose husband is retired, doesn't have any plans to leave Jackson County. "I've lived in the valley too long to move," she said.
In Ruch, a reading vigil will be held from noon to 1 p.m. outside the closed library on Saturday. The Ruch school depends on the branch because its own library is so small.
"We rely on it big time," said Scott Stemple, who teaches seventh and eighth grades at the school. "Our (school) library just doesn't have the materials."
Stemple said students have large projects coming up soon, and they would have spent considerable time using the library for preparation.
"I'm not sure what we can do," he said. "I'm not sure other than use the Internet and make the best of what we have."
Stemple said he takes issue with recent suggestions to reopen the Central Library in Medford but keep the outlying branches closed.
"When you're 13 years old and you live 17 miles from Medford, it's a big deal," he said.
Stemple, a Medford resident who has two children who go to the Ruch school, said he often thinks the only "library" remaining in Jackson County will be the Barnes & Noble store in Medford.
"We kind of joke about it," he said. "We have been known to call it the new Jackson County library."
As the library system's final days draw to a close, the effects of its closure are already hitting supporters.
Sue King, chairwoman of the Friends of the Library in Eagle Point, said it is particularly disheartening for her to see the new branch in her town close after all the fundraising efforts by local citizens.
King said money for many of the furnishings, artwork and fireplace in the new library was raised by the Friends of the Library. "Anything special the Friends have paid for it," she said.
As King spoke Thursday, about 30 children filed out of the library after an afternoon storytime reading program concluded.
"I see the kids that really need this facility, as well as the older people," she said.
King has mixed feelings about the upcoming May levy, worrying there might be too much confusion among voters.
County officials have indicated that if the three-year levy passed, they could legally use the money on any county service, an issue that concerns many voters, said King. However, county commissioners also have indicated that it would be political suicide to use the $8.3 million raised by the levy for any purpose other than libraries.
In addition, she said that if Washington, D.C., provides the money, it will only make local residents more reluctant to vote for a levy or special district in the future.
"People have a mistrust of the government," she said.
King said the symbolic padlock that will be placed on the front of the building will remind voters there's only one way to keep libraries open permanently.
"The voters hold the key," she said.
Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476 or dmann@mailtribune.com.
