"It's funny that we think of libraries as quiet demure places where we are shushed by dusty, bun-balancing, bespectacled women. The truth is libraries are raucous clubhouses for free speech, controversy and community. Librarians have stood up to the Patriot Act, sat down with noisy toddlers and reached out to illiterate adults. Libraries can never be shushed."
~ Paula Poundstone
Librarians are more than dispensers of books. They are guardians of knowledge and free thought. On the final day of Banned Books Week 2009, let's remember to support our local libraries and the men and women who safeguard what Andrew Carnegie called a "republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.”
"My mother and my father were illiterate immigrants from Russia. When I was a child they were constantly amazed that I could go to a building and take a book on any subject. They couldn’t believe this access to knowledge we have here in America.”
~ Kirk Douglas
"When I got my library card, that's when my life began."
~ Rita Mae Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment