...that's the inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes - established 1250 B.C.Soul medicine is something we could all use a little bit more of, and the libraries that can provide it have been valued by civilized communities for more than 3,000 years. Yet, in this time of governmental budget crises, we seem to be in real danger of losing access to it.
Libraries and library systems throughout Illinois, and beyond, have faced significant budget cuts on local, state, and federal levels. Just this week, U. S. Representative Scott Garrett (R - NJ) introduced Amendment #35 to the Continuing Resolution to the FY2011 budget, which would have eliminated "all funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, including funding for the Library Services and Technology Act, the primary source of federal dollars to libraries." The American Library Association and concerned library supporters across the nation helped defeat the amendment.
Concern over the fate of libraries has inspired impassioned appeals from the ranks of the bestsellers, as well.
"A library within a community stands as a testimonial to its values, its belief in universal
access to literature and knowledge." Scott Turow, bestselling author of Innocent and Presumed Innocent, and the president of the Authors' Guild, recently wrote that in his article, Let-Them-Eat-Cake Attitude Threatens to Destroy a Network of Public Assets, published February 15, in The Huffington Post.Please, click on the title of the article and read it for yourself. His eloquence stands best on it's own merit.
In that vein, here are more powerful words in support of libraries:
The richest person in the world - in fact all the riches in the world - couldn't provide you with anything like the endless, incredible loot available at your local library. ~Malcolm Forbes
And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and libraries of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them. ~Thomas Jefferson
There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration. ~Andrew Carnegie
Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest. ~Lady Bird Johnson
