Librarians

My publishers are off to the American Library Association conference, so I thought I'd take a moment here to praise librarians.

Books have been a constant source of comfort in my life. I've never been a big fan of TV. Don't get me wrong. Some shows are great and help change attitudes; other make us laugh, which is priceless. I can't watch anyone being humiliated (Mom issues there) so most situation comedies were impossible for me to watch. It seemed to be the primary source of the comedic situation. I found it mortifying and had to leave the room. So I spent a lot of time reading.

Without much money to spend on books, libraries were the source of books for me. Some writers I loved I found on my own, but many times it was a librarian who pointed me in the right direction. I might have never found Dune, A Town Like Alice, or Dorothy L Sayers' mysteries without guidance.

In the Bush years, as so many of our civil liberties were under constant attack, it was librarians who stood up and tried to defend our right to privacy. It's librarians who keep controversial books on the shelves so that we can share ideas that evil people want to keep from us. Unfortunately, it's also librarians who baby sit many kids who have no place to go after school, who watch over the homeless, and who fight the thankless battle against budget cuts and for the freedom of information. So show the librarians of the world some respect. They're soldier in a hidden war, and they fight for you.