It always amazes me, how libraries and their funding will fire people up; in Toronto now, nationally here in the UK with the latest budget, in Ottawa in the past. I have mixed feelings, normally. This passage from Alan Bennett really speaks to me, but I can't help wondering whether most of the younger generations would agree: "I have been discussing libraries as places and in the current struggle to preserve public libraries not enough stress has been laid on the library as a place not just a facility. To a child living in high flats, say, where space is at a premium and peace and quiet not always easy to find, a library is a haven. But, saying that, a library needs to be handy and local; it shouldn’t require an expedition. Municipal authorities of all parties point to splendid new and scheduled central libraries as if this discharges them of their obligations. It doesn’t. For a child a library needs to be round the corner. And if we lose local libraries it is children who will... - John Jarvis