Thursday, May 19, 2011
Libraries
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Keep Them Open
Headlines about budget cuts and their effects have become regular features. One cannot escape them. Priorities vary greatly; spending public money is a highly politicized issue.
Public libraries in America are among its treasures. Regrettably, they are not immune during the present crunch.
Charles Simic's A Country Without Libraries in The NY Review of Books is a must read for all
who care for libraries. Fight to keep them open.
"How many book lovers among the young has the Internet produced? Far fewer, I suspect, than the millions libraries have turned out over the last hundred years. Their slow disappearance is a tragedy, not just for those impoverished towns and cities, but for everyone everywhere terrified at the thought of a country without libraries."
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