Libraries: temples of freedom!

Great story from On The Media today: Librarians vs. the Patriot Act

Many of you have heard that I firmly believe that literacy is a hallmark of a free, democratic society, and therefore by extension, libraries are temples of freedom, and librarians warriors for freedom. This wonderful story gives us yet another example of how true this is.

Damn, I love libraries, and I am so happy to support them, and sing their praises. Here are a few of my favorites:

• the cozy South Lake Tahoe branch of the El Dorado County Library, with its gorgeous views of the lake
• the breathtaking Beaux-Arts grandeur of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library
• the Salt Lake City main library with its five story wall of glass and huge atrium
• my small but bustling local branch in Sacramento, Belle Cooledge, named for the first female mayor of Sacramento, where many moons ago, I volunteered with someone's Eagle Scout project to move all of the books from a prior location. Even at age 12 or so, I was aware that I was part of something important (and it's not a small task to move all the books from one library to another, and not mess up their order.) I typed my college admissions essay at the then brand new branch, on an IBM Selectric II, an analysis of the role of the 1848 Gold Rush and its role and legacy in modern-day racism in California.  
• the library at my middle school where I volunteered for nothing other than the love of books. I had a reading contest with another student volunteer to see who could read more books in a school quarter. I crushed him, in part by tearing through almost the entire Louie L'Amour cannon of brain-candy Spaghetti Westerns. 
• the library at Hampshire College, where I spent many hours hanging out with the awesome College Archivist and talking about the history of Hampshire. 
• my law school library, where I had a work study job which made me realize that I could avoid buying super expensive textbooks, and just do my reading with the single reference copy every class had. 
• Honorable mentions to every library I've ever had a card for, from Alaska to Massachusetts. 

I love that so many librarians take their jobs so seriously, and yet are still generally so damn nice. I love that public libraries provide warmth and shelter and connectivity and bathrooms to some of our society's most vulnerable, unhoused, and homeless persons. I love that libraries work really hard to keep up with the times, even as I mourn how few people I see check out real paper books to read these days. I love that I can be something of a hypocrite and find almost any book I want to read on my tablet through one of three libraries I have a current card for. I love the librarians on the third floor of the Seward Park Branch of the New York Public Library, one of the original Carnegie libraries, who immediately and loudly enforce the no cell phone ringing or talking rule. I love that almost every library in almost every US town has free wifi when you're traveling (and bathrooms, and drinking fountains.)

I LOVE LIBRARIES.