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Opinion

Our Library Deserves Our Support

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Samuels Public Library and Warren County, Virginia, grew up together.

The people here, generation to generation, have enjoyed and benefited from their library over many decades. They have watched it change and flourish over the years. It has revised its name and changed its location a few times, but its character and devotion to the people of Warren County have remained steadfast.

I mention this because Supervisor Jamieson, at the last Board of Supervisors’ meeting, compared Samuels Public Library’s contribution to the county as 5 cents to Warren County’s 95 cents. He is so wrong.

For the approximately $2 per month per resident that the county has budgeted for the library each year, a lot of good things have come back to the residents. Every person in this county has:
  • Free access to books from the Classics to recent Bestsellers on the “Hot Read” shelf at Samuels. (If a person reads one book per month, that would have cost them $20; the Warren County taxpayer has saved $18)
  • Free access to newspapers and magazines. Show me a newspaper or magazine that costs less than $2 per issue.
  • Free access to movies and music on Hoopla, as well as on DVDs and CDs that can be checked out.
  • Free access to databases like Transparent Language and Ancestry (worth around $50 a month)
  • Free access to educational programs that help both students and adults. I’ve seen teachers taking their children to Samuels programs during school breaks.
  • Free access to use computers for job search, research, or just fun stuff. A big boost for those residents who, for whatever reason, do not own their own personal computers.
  • One-on-one help from professional librarians (priceless!)
  • Plus more
While there may be a handful of Warren County residents who don’t appreciate how much Samuels Public Library gives to us all, I believe an overwhelming majority appreciate it a lot.

For anyone to say what Jamieson said demonstrates an astonishingly low level of awareness and/or a regrettable lack of gratitude for the gift that Samuels Public Library is to the people of Warren County.

I encourage everyone to contact their own supervisor before the August 6 Board of Supervisors’ meeting and tell him or her that you want the funds that are in the current budget for “library services” to be released to Samuels now so that they can continue to bring us so much and serve us so well!

Kelli Hart
Warren County, VA


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