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Monday, January 31, 2011

Author Philip Pullman's Impassioned Plea!

Okay, if you don't want to hear anymore impassioned pleas to save libraries worldwide (and especially here in TX), then stop reading my blog now. Otherwise, I encourage you to read this article by the author of the Golden Compass series, Philip Pullman.


Leave the libraries alone. You don’t understand their value.


Isn't it sad that librarians, who should be spending their time helping their patrons (and, in the case of school librarians, working with their students to love reading and to learn valuable technology and research skills), are having to wage marketing campaigns just to justify their (and their libraries') existence? I read a great analogy posted on the TLA Listserv that went something like this...


Legislators cutting what they don't understand (i.e., library funding) is like someone pulling out and disposing of a car's engine because they don't appreciate how essential it is to car's performance.


Another quote that really struck me?


Cutting libraries during a recession is like cutting hospitals during a plague. - Eleanor Crumbleholme, Library Asst., University of British Columbia


I'll save the lecture for now, but I'm not done yet!

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