Cardiff Library

I write to alert your readers of the danger of the closing of the county library branch in Cardiff. We should attend to this with the same alarm, I think, as if it were flood, fire or storm.

The Cardiff Library is one that is actively used by community members. In a town occupying 3 1/2 miles of space, 288 people are Friends of the Cardiff Library. Throughout the week, people of all ages can be found making use of the library, and the children’s programs on Saturday mornings draw from 15 to 100 children in a place with a small population. With its large children’s book section and inviting decor, the Cardiff Library is particularly attractive to children. Families beyond Cardiff, from Del mar, Solana Beach and Encinitas, bring their children to enjoy the pleasant surroundings and programs, to read and check out books.

We all recognize that communities and families play a large part in promoting or devaluing education in our country. Learning, in order to be appealing, must be seen as a process that is part of life in the world, not confined to the classroom or the homework table.

The charm, hospitality and efficiency of the Cardiff Library makes it as a place a celebration of literacy and learning. It is a setting where people of different ages and from various walks of life meet in appreciation of books. To close the Cardiff Library would be to say to the many children who use it that their interest in reading is not worth preserving. That would be a real shame.

The County Board of Supervisors will consider the library’s case on Nov. 26. Let all of us who value reading and an atmosphere that encourages children’s learning write and let them know that the Cardiff Library is not redundant. A well-used library is an asset to the entire county.

ERNESTINE McHUGH, Cardiff