The Quote of the Week

Well said.

“Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.”

―Anne Herbert 

Turns out this is not the only phrase coined by Herbert. She’s also the source of this gem:

"Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty."

―Anne Herbert

But I digress. I want to talk about libraries.

I recently read a plea on #Bookstagram asking people to sign up for a library card at their local library because it helps with funding. Wait. Really?

Here’s a quote from a Book Riot story that explains.

Getting a library card helps your library get better funding.

Libraries are nonprofit organizations, so when it comes to measuring success, they can’t point to profit margins or sales as evidence. What libraries can point to are numbers: the number of people who walk through the doors, the number of items checked out, and the number of people who sign up for a library card. Those are the numbers that library administrators can present to donors or local government officials, and believe me when I say libraries need those numbers – not to advocate for a larger budget, but to keep their budget from shrinking every year. It may not feel like signing up for a library card can do much on an individual level, but collectively, those individual statistics really do add up.

Of course, that’s super logical but it never occurred to me before. I immediately signed up online for a free card with the LA Public Library system.

I was raised in libraries. Our mom would take us to check out stacks of books. I recently bought this book because I had such vivid memories of checking it out from our neighborhood library in north Florida as a kid. (Okay, okay. The memory is actually of losing the book and having to pay for it with my own money. But it was a great book and totally worth it.)

My mom is currently on the Board of her local Friends of Library organization and volunteers in their fundraising bookstore.

I cannot believe I didn’t have a library card in LA! (For the record, I did have on in Tulsa and was a frequent visitor there.) Let’s chalk it up to not thinking of it yet.

Libraries are vital to the communities they serve.

• Lunch at the Library provides children and teens with free summer meals, summer reading programs, and other activities that support learning, health, and wellness.

• “People experiencing poverty or homelessness constitute a significant portion of users in many libraries today and this population provides libraries with an important opportunity to change lives.” —ALA

• Some libraries have Prom attire events for teens who cannot afford expensive dresses or rental tuxedos.

• Lots of libraries have tools in their collection, so you don’t have to spend a ton of money just to get your DIY done.

There is so much more.

If you don’t have a library card yet, will you please sign up for one today?

A funny aside.

When I looked Herbert up, I found that today’s Quote of the Week is a paraphrase of this beauty:

Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope.

— Gilbert Shelton, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers

Hilarious.📚