I recently posted about how libraries have changed and improved, and my feeling that although library funding may be threatened in the current economy and political climate, we must not allow them to go backward.

Yesterday I encountered a post espousing the same point of view, but much more eloquently:  Nine Reasons to Save Public Libraries.  In keeping with my post, she cites the War on Women as well.

The impetus for my post was my upcoming class reunion, which had me thinking about the public library I worked at while in high school.  While in my hometown over the weekend, I had the opportunity to visit and photograph that library.  The photo was also posted in Facebook, where, happily, several of my classmates commented on it:

• The library is where I spent many happy hours with Mary Poppins, the Borrowers, and countless others! For me, the library is a special, magical place.
• I spent many days in the summer checking out stacks of books and reading incessantly. I used to read with a flashlight under the covers…my sisters were ready to kill me. Just couldn’t put a book down!
• Spent hundreds of hours there- Nancy Drew, and so much more…waiting for Dad to pick me up after my piano lessons.

So, may I venture to say, 40 or more years ago, or today, libraries “are still the place where we as a nation will achieve our destiny.”  It is up to us to make sure that libraries don’t suffer, now or in the future—and that they are still around for the generations that follow us.  Please let your voice be heard.

Photo © 2011 ForLibraries,  Flickr.   http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/