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I've used libraries in Michigan and Ohio.
I use the
Geaga County
Public Library
in Chardon, Ohio. I worked as a page there
when I was sixteen years old.
I used to go upstairs to the town
hall, that's where it was, and all of the back issues of newspapers and magazines were kept
in the attic, and as a page, it was my designated job
to go crawling through the dust in the attic to get the back issues.
I would go to the
library and get as many books as I wanted. For me, the smell of the books,
and the kindness of the librarians, and what I saw as their incredible generosity,
to let me take half a shelf
every time I came in,
stayed with me forever.
It was a place where
I guess, that love of reading and your intellectual
inquiry were not laughed at. They weren't geeky,
they were,in fact, encouraged.
It was a safe zone for a smart girl to go.
[On budget cuts] I mean I hate to see a contraction,
at a time when we need libraries to be
technology leaders.at a time when we need libraries to be buying those e-readers.
And all of the other things, the computers
to keep us connected to each other in this world.
I would love to see libraries in a state of expansion, as they were a few years ago.
The reality is tougher than that
Librarians are the most resourceful profession out there.
They will figure out a way to keep us all connected,
to keep the doors open,
if we all stand with them,
and firm our common desire to
to have a commercial free space,
that's open to
anyone. "Open to all" it says over the library.
I just saw the first paperback copies of "This Book is Overdue."
I am going to be
promoting that. I'm going to be speaking at a number of library conferences.
And I'll be, as always, Twittering
and Facebooking
and causing mischief.