Every Town Needs A Fully Functional Library

Significant Other and I have spent some time this week taking posters and flyers advertising The New English Crimebake, http://www.crimebake.org/ to local libraries. Sue Grafton is the guest of honor at our conference this year, and it unlike some writing conferences, we're actually ahead of last year with our enrollment. This year we even have a panel of librarians, all of whom took a poster and a handful of flyers.

This morning, before our weekly trip to the Norton Roche Brothers, we drove into town to drop off the materials at the Norton Library. Not having been theere for a year, I almost remembered where the building was. Suffice it to say, we missed the parking lot and parked on a side street and I had a short hike. A swap meet was the "happening" in front of the library, and I hurried on by.

Can you imagine my consternation to find the library closed at noon on a Saturday? The sign in the window stated they were open Monday thru Thursday and not very long hours either. They've been decertified due to loss of funding. So sad.

I read yesterday that traffic at libraries had increased from 10 - 30 % in the last year. So many towns in our area have had serious financial problems and voters have been swift to come to the polls and vote down everything. Short-sighted to be sure.

Support your local library, in all possible ways. I grew up in a little town with a Carnegie library, and I probably would have become a juvenile deliquent without the library.

Well, McAfee decided to some something to this machine and between AOL and using a very old Dell, I am about to set my hair on fire. Slower than molasses in January.

More anon!