A big “Congratulations” to the Clearwater “Battle of the Books” team. I was honored to help out at the competition last week. The community should be very proud of the students and all the volunteers. Way to go! The Clearwater Public Library is busy finding, cataloguing and marking the Accelerated Reader books in our collection. If you think a book is AR and we do not have it marked, please let us know. This is a HUGE undertaking so please be patient with us.
Every economic crisis the first response is often to cut funding to culture. But the dismantling of libraries or changing their nature is not simply a matter of economics. Libraries are not only repositories of society’s memory and symbols of its identity but often the heart of social centers. Do you realize what books can do? Books can show us our responsibilities toward one another, help us question our values and undermine our prejudices, lend us courage and ingenuity to continue to live together, and give us enlightening words that allow us to imagine better times. Books entertain and inform. According to the Greek historian Didodorus Siculus, one of the ancient libraries he saw in Egypt carried above its entrance the words: “Clinic of the Soul.” Isn’t it time that You Check out the local public library?