Why keeping the library open is a matter of public safety.

When it comes to libraries and their funding, a lot of people go for the usual, "we can close the library. But make sure we keep the cops." While I think that we do need our police, closing the local library should not be the default option for funding cuts. As Diane Cherry  puts it in her editorial for the Marietta Daily Journal, "Closing Cobb's libraries a threat to public safety." This should be applicable to all libraries. A couple of good statements from the article; do go and read the rest.

• "Public safety begins with our teens who we can either educate and give opportunities to or deal with out on the streets. The same is true for the unemployed and homeless friends, neighbors and former co-workers who have touched every one of us. They need the libraries now more than they ever did." 
• "If we close libraries, we are shutting the doors on the people who need us most - a very real threat to public safety - as economic desperation often leads to crime and public unrest." This sounds a bit like a statement of the obvious, but then again, the asshats who want to cut public services and public goods (after they had 8 years or so of spending like drunken sailors with nothing really to show for it) do not particularly care.