You can go back in time or way, way ahead. By tapping this rich lode, you can come to know almost anybody of consequence alive or dead, in most cases, by the time you're through probing their thinking and their lives, you'll know more about 'em than even their contemporaries did or than their spouses do. Imagine being able to know almost everything about any company, any business, any profession, any science, any anything that might be of interest at all to you. You can measure the awareness, the breadth and wisdom of a civilization, a nation, a people by the priority given to preserving those repositories of all that we are, all that we were, or will be. Our libraries are being eroded alarmingly by inflation.
Public libraries depend on voluntary contributions.
I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries. Random House, 1980. The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a single page. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. As Election Day approaches, we remember that it is the public library in each and every town across America that provides the opportunity to create an informed citizenry, thereby making the library a central player in the electoral process.