The Value of Libraries
There was a short blurb in the online New York Times about a library in California that closed due to falling tax revenues despite the efforts of Ray Bradbury to save it.
Explaining his support of libraries generally and his efforts in Ventura specifically, Mr. Bradbury said in an interview last summer: “Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries, because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”
I am entirely sympathetic to Bradbury. I did indeed go to college, but I managed a liberal education despite the best efforts of the university to prevent it, by means of the campus library and the Internet. I honestly didn't work all that hard in college, so I had plenty of time to read. I probably spent more time reading things in this fashion than I did on coursework. I still spend a lot of time reading, because that I how I learned much of what I currently know.
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