My public library has always been a place of comfort, providing a space for connecting with the world and my local community. It has such importance in my life that I visit the local library before I decide to buy a home.

The NOBLE library system has been a great asset while raising my daughter. We have a weekly rotation of books, get discounted museum tickets, and participate in Library programs within the system to make friends and enrich our lives. My daughter is going into Kindergarten this fall and can already read. I hope that the defunding of Libraries by the executive order is reversed as Congress controls federal funding, not one single person.

I have been a library patron since my early 20s. I would not be able to keep up with my reading and research without the benefit of a wonderful library like the one we have in Greenfield, MA. Without the library, I would not be able to read any new books which cost at least $25 apiece. And since I read over 50 bucks a year, that would be a huge loss to me. But the library isn’t just for one person, it’s a free educational and social resource for anyone in the community. The idea of losing funding is incredibly horrible and must not be allowed.

I love my local libraries because they provide me with a building of wonder, imagination, discovery, and peacefulness. My introduction to a public library was as a young child; my mother took my sister and I every week. I would leave the library with about a dozen chapter books, only to return them (all read) the following week and switch them out for new ones. As I got older, my pleasure reading in the library also included access to resources for my academic growth. This is a growth that I am still fostering, as I visit between two local libraries in pursuit of my MBA. My children, while they are not as avid readers as I am, also love our local library for their children's activities, movie and games borrowing, and a safe social place to visit.

I love my local library!!! I'm a grad student studying music & vocal performance. I was able to use my local Easthampton library on summer break to borrow resources to supplement my research to help me get my Master's in a year. The library has so many great community resources all for free! We've used it for discounted museum tickets in our area. We really love it so much and are so grateful it's here in town!

I don't think there's a way to calculate the massive impact that libraries have had on my development as a human. The ideas, beauty, tragedy, hilarity, and more that I've encountered through books I've read via the library, have made a direct impact on my capacity for critical thinking, and most importantly, empathy. But that's the obvious part. It's easy to forget just how critical libraries are for building community in real, necessary ways. As a parent, I can't tell you how many winter mornings I've spent needing to do something outside the house with my kids, but not having the resources for a paid activity. "Let's hit the library" is almost a refrain in our house as a result. It's a warm (literally), accessible, comforting place. When people say "it takes a village," it's hard to not think of the library as the literal meeting place of that village. And also! I grow vegetables in my garden from seeds that I get from the library. Libraries quite literally feed their communities.