
Michael Gorman wrote eloquently about the mission of libraries in his book, Our Enduring Values. He noted that libraries are "the focal point of a community, ... the place remembered fondly by children when grown, the solace of the lonely and the lost, the place in which all are welcome, and a source of power through knowledge." In my life, libraries have been all those things and more...
I guess it all started when I was three...

I could blame my mother for buying Funk & Wagnall's encyclopedias and National Geographic magazines and even -- the Horror! -- Reader's Digests!
I could blame my kindergarten teacher, Miss Garfield, for letting me read aloud to the rest of the class. I remember the experience of it to this day. It was my first favorite:
The Little Engine That Could!
You know: "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."
Wow, what a rush! All those little faces focused on me... no, not on me. They were focused on the book I was holding, on the story I was telling... on the words I was reading...

Until my older brother -- you know, it's always those older brothers with their superior knowledge of the mean streets and back alleys who know just the place to go -- well, he turned me on to a place where I could get all the stuff I wanted... for FREE!
Yeah, that's how they sink their claws in and indoctrinate you into the life -- by giving it to you for free...
I found many a wonderful read with this wandering serendipity... but other times I needed guidance, times when I was looking for... something, anything that would transport me through time and space to anywhere but where I was. Although I didn't yet know the title or the author or even necessarily the subject matter... I just knew I wanted a book that would take me somewhere... and I would turn to a librarian to help me find it.

Reading great literature -- and copious amounts of good literature -- and even reading the literary equivalent of bubblegum -- made me a stronger reader, a critical thinker and it also helped form me as a writer... because when I didn't find the story I wanted to read, I started writing them myself...