These days Library references seem everywhere. Jody’s former post about Keith Richards wanting to be a librarian.. Then just within the week I found two more. One from Time [July 19, 2010 pg.14] by Marilyn Johnson “Public officials will tell you they love libraries and are committed to them; they just don’t believe they constitute a “core” service…..Sooner or later, we’ll all feel the loss as one of the most effective levelers of privilege and avenues of reinvention- one of the great engines of democracy- begins to disappear”.
The other from Newsweek [July 19, 2010 pg.16] under The Culture. “Libraries are moving into malls, because that’s where the people are. A bad sign for the state of reading.”
What really struck me about these two items are how disparate they are. The fact of the matter is that The Library is getting to be a dying breed. We do not want to be an endangered species or worse yet we cannot become extinct. Talk about too big to fail! Our public library system is perhaps the greatest gift ever bestowed on the world…..I’m not really kidding. Could you think of ONE OTHER THING that gives you the value of a public library, absolutely free! I would be interested to know if you can.
With that I will leave you with a quote: “Knowledge is free at the library. Just bring your own container.” author unknown.