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FEBRUARY 23, 2013
John Scalzi on Libraries
John Scalzi is, among other things, a science fiction writer whose popular works include the Old Man's War series and Redshirts, which takes a Star Trek in-joke and turns it into an unusual story that is hilarious and moving at the same time.
Scalzi is also the "proprieter" of one of the longest-running blogs on the Web, Whatever. This morning Whatever features his Personal History of Libraries. I highly recommend the entire post, but here are a few excerpts: Finally I arrive at my present library, the one in Bradford, Ohio. It’s a small library, but then, Bradford is a small community, of about 1,800. For that community, the library holds books, and movies, magazines and music; it has Internet access, which folks here use to look for jobs and to keep in contact with friends and family around the county, state and country. It hosts local meetings and events, has story times and reading groups, is a place where kids can hang out after school while their parents work, and generally functions as libraries always have: A focal point and center of gravity for the community — a place where a community knows it is a community, in point of fact, and not just a collection of houses and streets... Thank you, John, that's exactly why we are here. |
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