[pattisapu]

And one of the fondest memories of childhood. I grew up in a small Texas town where I could check out things in grade school itself. While I had some mishaps like checking out Jaws at 6 years old and having nightmares thereafter, on the whole I think libraries are an uncontroversial good.

The size of the library matters less now.

What has been an issue lately is that the budget cuts do not hit the number of staff or budget for books -- they just shorten the hours -- often, again, in smaller Texas towns and no doubt elsewhere, cutting the hours down to as few as 5 days a week, with hours as short as 9 am to 5 pm or even 4 pm, so that it is often nearly impossible to get there after work or school.