SALINAS, Calif. — The banner draped across the one-story brick facade of the Cesar Chavez branch library reads: "Your Door to Education." But at 10 a.m. on a recent Tuesday, the doors were locked and the parking lot empty.
The Chavez library, like the city's two other branches, is open only a few hours a day five days a week and faces closure in June as a result of a financial crisis that has descended upon this city of 150,000 in the heart of the Salinas Valley.
Cities across the country have been struggling to balance local budgets, but Salinas' decision last fall to shut down its library system brought it international notoriety. Salinas was the hometown of Nobel Prize-winning novelist John Steinbeck. A life-size bronze statue of the author stands guard over the city's main library downtown, which bears his name.
But over the last few weeks, Salinas residents seem to have experienced a bookish epiphany.
After rejecting a ballot measure last year that would have provided new taxes for libraries, residents have suddenly decided to open their wallets. Contributions are pouring into Rally Salinas, a nonprofit group established to keep the libraries open until a permanent solution can be found.
Launched about five weeks ago, Rally Salinas has collected $240,000 toward its goal of raising $500,000, with an additional $75,000 contribution expected to arrive soon. If the goal is met, the money would pay for a skeleton crew who would move from library to library, opening the three branches for a day or two each week starting in June.
Donations have arrived from all over.
When actor Bill Murray competed in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament in February, he signed over his $12,500 in prize money to Rally Salinas. Wealthy ranchers have pledged even larger donations. Grade-schoolers have pitched in pennies, dimes and quarters.
Local residents hosted a fundraising flea market at the Elks Lodge. One civic activist persuaded the 110-boy St. Michael's Choir from Toronto to stage two benefit concerts in the area in April.
"Things are coming together in ways I don't think anyone envisioned two months ago," said Mayor Anna Caballero, who is spearheading Rally Salinas.
But not all residents are on board.
Mark Dierolf, an insurance broker and vocal critic of Caballero and the City Council, has no plans to contribute to Rally Salinas, even though he was until recently a member of a library support group.
