Editor’s Note: This piece was written in response to a Maine campaign called “I Support My Local Library,” where patrons were encouraged tell the Maine Legislature why libraries are important and are worth maintaining. All across the country, libraries are in terrible economic trouble. Branches are closing, and according to USA Today, “Darby, Pa., expects to close its only library – the oldest continuously operating free public library in Pennsylvania and believed to be the oldest in the nation – next year.” Meanwhile, usage is up, and we need our libraries more than ever. Surely, along with the bailouts for the “let-them-eat-cake” bankers, businessmen, and financiers, we can find enough money to keep libraries going.

By Laurie Meunier Graves

I grew up in Vassalboro, a small, rural, and rather poor town in central Maine. The town’s grade school, a low-slung cinderblock affair, could certainly be called a no-frills institution. Class trips were rare, and the playground was little more than a big field. Yet tucked in a room that was not much bigger than a large storage closet was the school’s library. With two long wooden tables in the center, there was just enough room to sidle around the edges to look at the books. The door was often closed-I suppose to keep out the hallway noise-and the first thing you noticed when you entered the room was the smell of books. To me, it was one of the best smells in the world. In that tiny library, I discovered Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, and I remember feeling something akin to an electric current as I read this thrilling, innovative book.

There was also a town library, housed in an old ice-fishing shack with an addition. But the library, painted New England white, was clean and cozy, and it had rocking chairs, braided rugs, a woodstove, and, of course, books. We went weekly, and it was there I become hooked on Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances. So you could say that because of two small libraries, I was able to travel back and forth in time and then come back to the present whenever I wanted.

My story is not unique, and I expect many adults my age could tell similar tales of coming from poor Maine towns that had a library. Maine, indeed New England, is well known for having a large number of libraries, and it’s a rare town that doesn’t have one. In the United Sates, does Maine have the most libraries per capita? With over two hundred and fifty public libraries, we must come close, and it is something to be proud of.

Libraries, of course, have changed since I started using them. They now have computers, movies, children’s programs, book groups, adult programs, and books on tapes. In Maine, there is a wonderful interlibrary loan system, which means that there is a huge, virtual collection available to avid readers. But despite the changes, two things remain the same. One, no matter how much money you have (or don’t have), you are always welcome at the library. I know from experience that librarians are just as thrilled to serve poor patrons as they are to serve rich patrons. Even in the supposed classless United States, this is a rare and wonderful attitude. Second, libraries provide a center to a community, a soul even, and to my way of thinking a town without a library is a sorry town indeed.

With the Charles M. Bailey Public Library, Winthrop, Maine, has its own vital center, a place where children can make thrilling discoveries that will bring them to places they never imagined. Adults can take a chance on a book that they might not want to buy but are still interested in reading. When my children were young, we went to Bailey Public Library as a family. Now that my daughters have grown up and moved away, I still go. It is my favorite place in town.

Times are hard now, I know. But I hope we somehow find the money to continue to fund our libraries. Over the past month, I’ve contacted many of Maine’s libraries to see if they stayed open during the Great Depression. They did-some of the libraries were even built during the Great Depression-and we are the grateful recipients of our forbears’ generosity. Now, let us extend that same generosity to generations to come. Let us dig deep, if we have to, and support our libraries.