Keillor's Library Article
Thank you Garrison Keillor for an article that all librarians need to read! Your gift with words gave voice to random thoughts in my head, tying them all neatly and powerfully together into one place, the library.
One powerful paragraph:
My old hometown Carnegie library with the columns and high-domed
ceiling was irreplaceable, and so of course it was torn down by vandals
in suits and ties and replaced with a low warehouse-looking library
that says so clearly to its patrons, "Don't get any big ideas. This is
as good a library as you clowns deserve." But the spirit lives on, in
the ranks of dedicated women and men who run the place.
I worked once in a community where they created a box-like library out near the highway, deserting the grand pillared and marble library downtown. And this is exactly what that building told the community. But now I work in a library that soars. It offers grace, warmth and delight to our community. It is our duty as librarians here to lift our own efforts to the glory of the building itself. What a wonderful way to inspire both our patrons and ourselves.