School and public libraries across the country are being cut back or worse.
We see the reports almost daily, like this one from NPR and this Indiegogo project started by two kids who want a library in their school.
I’ve heard people comment that “I don’t need no lie-berry ‘cuz I can find everything I need on my smartphone.” Except, perhaps, the proper pronunciation of the word li-BRARY.
It saddens me that professionals once revered and honored (in the case of librarians) have become luxuries to cut from budgets, and necessary public services (in the case of libraries) are considered expendable.
Rod Serling penned an episode of The Twilight Zone which aired in 1961, The Obsolete Man, about a day when librarians would be considered obsolete, expendable, unnecessary.
It’s fifty years later, and look where we are.
It’s up to us — writers, readers, those who care about public access to information and the quality of life for our communities and our nation — to support our libraries and our librarians.
Learning, and equal access to information, should never be considered obsolete.