I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
—Jorge Luis Borges
I work at a small town library in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a good job. I get to be around books, which I love, and I feel like I’m helping people everyday. Patrons come in looking for automotive manuals to help them fix their cars, or they need information on an illness they have just been diagnosed with, or they want a good mystery and figure since I’ve read all the books in the library I can find one for them, or they want to know the origin of the name of Beacon Rock, a volcanic structure near here. (It was named by Lewis and Clark on their expedition.) We do our best to get them what they want and most people are very appreciative of our efforts.
The point is that such places as the library are like bits of paradise in this world. Libraries are one of the best things that civilization has given us and I would not want to live in a world without them.
