The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”
–Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist 

Decades ago — way last century — I took a walk to my local library with an older girl from around the corner. It was early in summer vacation after first grade. We came back to my house with an application for my library card and I begged my mom to let us walk back so I could get some books.

I came home with five of them and decided that day I wanted to be a writer.

So began my lifelong love affair with libraries.

When I got my library card, that was when my life began.”
– Rita Mae Brown

My hometown library was one of many built through the largesse of Andrew Carnegie. As a child, I walked up the front steps, pulled open the heavy doors and glanced as the portrait of Mr. Carnegie before racing up or down the steps to the rooms that housed the books I wanted to read. Sadly, several years ago, someone broke into the building and stole the portrait. Hard to believe.

I spent so much time there growing up that the librarians knew me well enough to hire me as a page when I got old enough for a job. I worked there — very part time — for four years. And the library board was the first regular news assignment I had for my hometown paper.

I now live outside a tiny town in north central Illinois where the village board contributes the payroll for someone to sit in the school library on Saturday morning to check books out for anyone in the neighborhood. I believe the school district may be the boundaries for the village’s generosity.

Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one.”
—Neil Gaiman, author

I also live about 45 minutes south of the wonderful libraries at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Having been a student there, I became familiar with several of the campus libraries and take advantage of guest status from time to time.

And I have district resident access to the library at a community college about 30 miles from my house. I haven’t used it much since my kids stopped attending classes there.

But mostly I borrow books on line from the two libraries where I ante up cash for cards annually. The closest Illinois community with a library has a pretty small collection, but they’ll order almost anything on line for me. That’s been handy when I’ve been doing research for talks I’ve made to a few groups I belong to.

I ransack public libraries, and find them full of sunk treasure.”
—Virginia Woolf, author

I also buy a card from Rockford, Illinois. That system just opened a new main branch building on the site of the former main branch along the Rock River. The spot, it turns out, was a hazardous waste site from previous use in manufacturing and power generation. The new building is gorgeous, and I’ll probably make a stop there one of these days.

But I am a huge fan of RPL’s online services. I borrow extensively from their digital audio collection, since my fiction consumption is almost exclusively audio these days. I never thought anything would surpass the experience of holding a book in my hands and curling up in a comfy chair with a seasonal beverage near me. But I started listening to audio books on my commute to work and have never gone back. Now I listen while I wash dishes or cook or other occasional house chores. And, of course, I still listen in the car.

Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”
–Walter Cronkite, journalist 

There is a persistent misunderstanding about libraries being free. They really aren’t, although they feel like it. Most are tax supported in one way or another, and when I pay for a card in districts I don’t live in, my few dollars are equivalent to what district residents pay in taxes. I think the cost is the best bargain on anyone’s tax bill. And for me, who reads 100 books a year, the cost is far less than if I bought all those books myself.

I do like to buy books from my friends, and have bought a few paperbacks and hardcovers when they don’t have audiobooks. (And apologize for not getting around to them in a timely manner.) I’ve been thinking about buying an old fashioned autograph book because I rarely have anything for them to sign when I see them in person.

The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom.
–Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson, first lady of the USA

But all this is to say I love libraries and think everyone needs to support them. I hate the censorship some libraries are facing. Ideas should be widely circulated, whether you agree with them or not, so we can better understand each other’s experiences and points of view.

I say all this in July, because I happen to think libraries are a national treasure and one of the surest ways to make sure we all have the opportunity to learn our shared history and plan for a well-woven future. I admit, I’m an idealist. But without years of library time, I wouldn’t even know what ideals we might reach for.

À bientôt!