Keillor: Libraries Important to National Defense
Garrison Keillor, the host of the radio show Prairie Home Companion, writes about how English majors need stronger voices so they can improve libraries:
"I belong to an enormous
special-interest group that, unlike Alaskans or hobby pilots, has never exercised much clout, and that is the English-major community. For us, the equivalent of the Gravina Island bridge is the public library equipped with leather sofas and an espresso bar and librarians who are trained in pressure-point massage. And a statue of Minerva.I imagine that a super-
library of that caliber might cost $223 million if you add in the books, the banks of computers with high-speed Internet connections, the movie theater, the Children’s Room, the Steam Room, the Nap Room, the Hobnob Room where English majors can gather for a libation, the underground parking garage, and the kindly reference librarian with the bun, the faint moustache on the upper lip, the navy-blue knit dress, the sensible shoes, and the glasses on a chain around her neck. Those ladies have become rare and do not come cheap. …… And we need to promote public libraries as a tool in the war against terrorism. …
… Do we need to wait until our cities lie in smoking ruins before we wake up to the fact that a first-class public library is a vital link in national defense? …"
I could use a librarian trained in massage right about now~
