Libraries improve patrons’ lives

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5:21 PM Friday, July 10, 2009

Letter to the editor

I intensely oppose the proposed budget cuts for our library system. Here are a few things that I have been self-taught, just by using my local library:

• How to plant a vegetable garden and how to use the French-intensive method of planting, companion planting and composting waste materials.

• Natural pest control.

• Methods of obtaining different shapes, designs, chemical reactions and effects that motivate me to experiment with the glass beads and cabochons I make and sell .

• Design principles and how to work with wire and methods of bead weaving.

• Every night before I go to sleep, I’m able to set aside the stresses and worries of my life and submerge myself in any world I choose. I can solve murders, ride a dragon, visit a cafe in Italy, journey through the Brazilian Pantanal, be a vampire — all through library books.

Reducing library services further will impose even greater hardships on many people who already are feeling the most severe effects of the recession. For some of us, it’s all we have left.

Libraries aid people trying to find jobs, help students perform research and are an important resource for individuals and families seeking affordable entertainment .

Further cuts to the Dayton library system will have deeper and more long-lasting negative effects than whatever short-term benefit they net.

Mickie Cowan

Englewood

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