Recently, a group of citizens met to discuss what they could do to prevent funding to the public library system from being cut even more than it has been.

During the meeting, citizens and employees of the library discussed several reasons why public libraries are important to the community.

While the discussion was taking place, I thought about why the library is important to me. After some reflection, I remembered that I would visit the library early in my childhood in order to receive help with my school work or whenever I just wanted to use a computer. Growing up, not many of my friends had a computer at home, so we often visited the library in order to play games such as Pinball, use the application Paint or just browse the Internet.

Besides spending majority of my time playing games on a computer, I also remember checking out book series such as Goosebumps, Captain Underpants or The Giver.

At the library, there are also various magazines covering a wide range of topics but the one that attracted me the most was Sports Illustrated for Kids.

In the end, those magazines are what inspired my love and passion for sports.

Like I mentioned earlier, I didn’t have a computer at home when I was younger, so the library was the only place where I could conduct extensive research to complete a project.

With all the technological advancements in the last couple of years, many citizens, including myself, have Internet access either at home or on our mobile phone. But there’s still something about doing research with physical copies of books and magazines.

And for those individuals who don’t have immediate access to the Internet, the library is their only source where they’re able to read a new book or learn about what’s going on in today’s world, either by using the Internet or by checking out a book of their choice.