City Should Leave Libraries Alone For Now

Libraries are a lot like public transportation, for those who need them, they're an absolute lifeline.

Apparently, Lubbock Public Libraries have seen a bit of a decline and money hungry council members are eyeing their budgets. Let's full stop right here. Politicians never save you money, they just take money from one place and move it to another.

According to Everything Lubbock, councilman Jeff Griffith claims library usage is down over 20 percent "but our budget is not down".  Good on you for looking for places to cut Jeff, but I think we can do without some of the stuff the new city council building needs before we slap a book out of one kid's hands.

Those people who think that libraries should be consolidated don't know a library means to a community. If it was just one big warehouse to store a book location, then one location would be fine, but Lubbock libraries serve communities. In fact, in some areas, a library is one of the nice things they have.

We don't need fewer places for folks to get books, we need more. I would even go so far as to say that we need more library outreach and programs. The library was my favorite place as a kid and I didn't know what kind of magic I was going to get into until I went to the shelves and started pulling books.

We've heard one simple phrase for most of our lives, "readers are leaders", so let's not let our leaders cut down our readers.  I encourage everyone who reads this to go get a library card. Just by showing some numbers at the door, we can show we care about education in our community.