WriteRunRead Blog

I am a runner.  Have been for a while.  I run to clear my head, keep fit and melt away any anxieties floating through my veins.  But there is a relatively new phenomenon, a source of dread and anxiety that arises during my runs: the free roaming dog. These are dogs that are sitting or walking on their own property, wearing a collar (seemingly an "electric fence" collar), alert to all that passes them by.  However, sometimes these dogs see a runner (me) in the distance and will start galloping in my direction.  And oftentimes, all I see in my peripheral vision is a dog running at me.  Until, of course, it stops short at the end of the property, to avoid the electric current I suppose. But how am I to know that the dog will stop?  Simply because it is trained to stop and doesn't want the shock or whatever terrible sensation the dog hopes to avoid, how on earth does anyone know what a dog will do every single time?  I don't trust electric fences ...

During the past week, two people said to me, “As technology evolves, what on earth do we need libraries for?  Everything we need is ONLINE .” People feel that way. They don’t understand the need for a library to overhaul its space, let alone increase its square footage.  The computer can do it all.  That’s what people say.  That’s what they think.  When you are teaching a child to read, or simply reading to a two-year old, is the iPad sufficient?  Should kids be wired from the moment they can point and click and “touch”? What about the physical book that you can no longer really touch and smell?  What about all of the senses?  Not just the visual cartoonish image on a bright screen. A library space is unthreatening, understated, welcoming and full of enriching materials. When my kids were younger, we would visit the library and take out 10 to 12 picture books at a time.  They would sit at the kitchen table and sift through them, studying ...