I am testifying tomorrow morning at the Seattle City Council budget session, on behalf of the Seattle Public Library budget. In these tough times, circulation is up 20% and once again, the Library is part of the solution: people are using the computers and databases to conduct job searches and build resumes, to access financial advice, inquire about social services or even learn how to start a business. Seattle invested $196.4 million in the Library several years ago, to build the downtown location and invest heavily in the branch system -- and 70% of our citizens voted to pass the "Libaries for All" bond issue to make this enhanced system possible. Now is not the time to back off our commitment to the Library.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes about libraries:
"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.
"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." -- Jorge Luis Borges
"Libraries -- The medicine chest of the soul." -- Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes.
"Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest." -- Lady Bird Johnson
"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." -- Cicero
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