Support your libraries in election | Federal Way letters

Your editorial Jan. 30 suggests everyone should support the school technology levy, but the "casual and non-user" of libraries should say no to the King County Library levy. Using your logic, should non-users of schools also just say no to the school levy?

My husband and I have no children, so we have not used a school in the years since we graduated from one. However, we routinely support school funding because we know that schools are a societal need, not just an individual need. The same is true of our libraries.

Your belief that libraries are just free Internet cafes is so far from what libraries actually do as to be simply laughable. The King County Libraries are the third busiest library system in the entire U.S. Nearly 90 percent of residents have a library card, and in 2008, they checked out more than 20 million items and accessed even more at the libraries or online. You'll find books, periodicals, newspapers, audio and videotapes (even audiobooks compatible with iPods), films, CDs and DVDs. You can download ebooks, audiobooks, videos and music, and even check out mp3 players if you don't have one. Their online resources include nearly 100 databases with information you can't get elsewhere on the web.

Yes, there is free computer use and Wi-Fi service for those who don't have computers or the Internet. But there are also children's story times in various languages, reading programs for children and teens, English as a Second Language classes, book clubs, classes on how to use computers, tutors for GED preparation, tax preparation assistance, "ask a librarian" reference service, outreach service to the elderly and homebound, free meeting rooms for community groups, and an adult career center offering one-on-one assistance with resumes, cover letters and interview preparation — very important services for those who have lost their jobs during this recession.

Visit a library and you will find many of those students in whom you want us to invest using the study tables and free homework help. The databases, reference service and many of the tutoring services are also available from your home computer.

Visit a King County library (both libraries in Federal Way are branches of the King County Library System) or browse www.kcls.org. Then support the library levy so our libraries don't have to reduce staff and the hours they are available to the community, as Seattle and Tacoma libraries have had to do.

Joyce Harms, Federal Way

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