Defending libraries.

• Author: Kenneke, Joan
• Position: Letters to the Editor - Letter to the editor

Your November issue was a standout in a long series of great reporting. I love Jim Hightower, as I really need his humor about the sad state of our dear country at present ("Perry Tales"). But my favorite article from that issue was the one by Antonino D'Ambrosio on the closing of libraries ("Overdue Notice: Defend Our Libraries").

This is a subject very close to my heart. I'm seventy-six now, but I can remember as clearly as if it were yesterday a moment when I had borrowed a book from a classmate in second grade at St. Peter's School in Reading, Pennsylvania. The day the friend asked me to return the book, I told her that I hadn't finished it. She said, "Well, go to the public library with me and check it out." I was too embarrassed to tell her I didn't have any money. Finally, I fessed up, and she said, "The library is free." I signed up that day, and I have been an avid reader ever since.

Joan Kenneke

Oakton, Virginia

Antonino D'Ambrosio drew attention to the closing of libraries across the country. It's happening everywhere. Last spring, the Evanston Public Library Board, for budgetary reasons, closed...