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Since she learned to walk, my daughter and I have regularly taken outings together to the Kingsessing Branch of the Free Library. I cherish my memories of intimate walks as we hold hands walking Westward, often commenting on the late afternoon sun as it approached the horizon. We share information about our days, remember the stories contained in the books the we are returning and talk about the type of books we’d like to find at the library. Always, my three year old daughter has her own library card grasped in the hand that is not holding mine.

If our local library branch is to close, there is no doubt in my mind that her access to books will be limited as a result. We will not constantly have new titles to choose from when we sit down to read on rainy weekend afternoons or before bedtime because there is no way that we will be able to travel as frequently to the next closest branch which is more than fifteen blocks away. Even with a financial crisis in our city, there is no reason that my daughter should be denied local, easy access to all that libraries offer. This is a future that contradicts my own experience of growing up as a library patron and saddens me as I think about all of the young kids and adults who eagerly enter libraries across the city searching for knowledge, inspiration, and sanctuary.

As a high school teacher, I am acutely aware of the fact that many of my students have very complicated lives and work very hard to complete the complex assignments and projects that are part of my classes. Teaching in this city, I have always felt comfortable with the belief that all of my students have adequate access to technology and information because none of them live very far from a branch library. If branches are to close this will all change and I imagine numerous situations where it will legitimately not be possible for these teenagers to be able to make it to a public library during open hours. For the first time in my teaching career, some of my students will have legitimate excuses as to why they couldn’t complete the research for a project or get a book that I recommended to them.