National Library Week

While visiting the Law Library in the Iowa state capitol this past week I noticed a brochure promoting "National Library Week" --

http://www.ala.org/ala/pio/natlibraryweek/nlw.htm

National Library Week is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation's libraries, librarians and library workers and to promote library use and support.

which is set for April 15 to 21, 2007.

Personally I owe a debt of gratitude to my home town library (supported by the Godbersen Family Foundation) which provided the foundation of reading materials that enabled me to become a good student in school, college, and graduate school.

As I reviewed the American Library Association website I was curious if they planned to mention the "lending library" created by Benjamin Franklin whereby patrons would pay a subscription fee for access to books. Based on what I reviewed at this weblink I did not see such a reference made (perhaps some "political correctness" at work here?) --

http://www.ala.org/ala/ppo/currentprograms/benjaminfranklin/franklin.htm

Mr. Franklin created the first lending library in the American Colonies in 1731 which was a free market solution that helped spread the practice of reading books to the underclasses as noted here --

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/benfranklin/librarian.html

Clearly the public benefits from private initiative,

Todd