In tough economic times, libraries are used more heavily. The first thing people are unable to afford are items like books, magazines or video rentals. The library resources become more important, since more people will turn to their local library. With a library card, our county residents have access to children’s books, adult books, videos, books on tape, magazines, newspapers, the internet and much more.
Many families have priceless memories and experiences from using their local public library. My first memory of a library was the story time where the librarian made the story of “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly” come alive. Many more memories come to mind as I remember checking out stacks of books for two weeks, with their value probably exceeding $250. In a year this would equal more than $6,500 in borrowed materials. I was able to find these resources free from my local public library at a time when my family couldn’t afford books. Today I’m very thankful libraries were available to share their resources! I remember once moving to an area that wasn’t served by a library and, as a child, not understanding why we couldn’t use the local library because they charged a fee to join and my parents couldn’t afford the cost. It is my saddest memory of a library.