Anyone who knows me for more than a day knows that I am pretty much completely dependent upon libraries. Have been, ever since I was old enough to select my VERY OWN BOOKS that I could actually take home and HAVE FOR WEEKS. It was the single most awesome thing ever, and remains so. Even in Italy, where libraries with books in English were small and few and far between, those little libraries were absolute treasure houses. (And occasionally loud sources of drama when I attempted to head over to the high school section where the books were "just too old for me," which was probably true, but ignored the fact that the high school section had all of the good robot and dinosaur books, my main interest at the time. Come to think of it I haven't really branched out much since, but I digress.)
And some of those libraries were in upstate New York, which is why I am directing your attention to
this post about a library in dire need. (I suspect, by the way, that even if I win the library, I'd still go to libraries -- it's just something about a library. Even my local library which currently trends more to heavily used computers and DVDs and ever fewer books.)