I am APPALLED to learn that city library hours will be reduced even more. For me, cutting back on library hours is like cutting back on public school hours! Libraries are ESSENTIAL - NOT a LUXURY-, and deserve to be open full-time in EVERY community because they guarantee equal access to information, books, resources, event, activities, and computers for EVERYONE.
I would even go so far as to write that libraries saved my life growing up in the North End. Why? Because libraries in the North End and on State Street were safe havens for me as I borrowed books to read in order to escape the chaotic and sometimes violent times throughout my childhood and teenage years. When I received my first library card in elementary school, I acted as if I had been given one of the golden tickets to Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory! I grew up in a household where, except for school books, the only reading book was the Spanish-language Bible with its onion-thin pages. When I was 13, my first love did give me boxes of books his uncle received as part of a property he bought and an elderly woman abandoned. Even still, I borrowed as many books as my backpack could carry and hauled them home to my third-floor room to read. If Springfield has a genuine commitment to address literacy among children and families, then wouldn’t it be a logical step to maintain full-time hours so that ALL families have FREE access to books, resources, events, and computers? As a taxpayer, long-term Springfield resident (1967-1985 and 2004-present), library patron, educator, Puerto Rican poet, and single mom of a 9th grade son, when and where do I have my say? I would GLADLY forgo the money offered to me by the Library and City of Springfield if this meant that the library could stay open longer!
I would even go so far as to write that libraries saved my life growing up in the North End. Why? Because libraries in the North End and on State Street were safe havens for me as I borrowed books to read in order to escape the chaotic and sometimes violent times throughout my childhood and teenage years. When I received my first library card in elementary school, I acted as if I had been given one of the golden tickets to Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory! I grew up in a household where, except for school books, the only reading book was the Spanish-language Bible with its onion-thin pages. When I was 13, my first love did give me boxes of books his uncle received as part of a property he bought and an elderly woman abandoned. Even still, I borrowed as many books as my backpack could carry and hauled them home to my third-floor room to read. If Springfield has a genuine commitment to address literacy among children and families, then wouldn’t it be a logical step to maintain full-time hours so that ALL families have FREE access to books, resources, events, and computers? As a taxpayer, long-term Springfield resident (1967-1985 and 2004-present), library patron, educator, Puerto Rican poet, and single mom of a 9th grade son, when and where do I have my say? I would GLADLY forgo the money offered to me by the Library and City of Springfield if this meant that the library could stay open longer!