Leader Editorial: Library boosts collection and standing

One of our feature stories this week centers on the Burbank Public Library and its efforts in recent years to expand LGBTQ offerings. We never had any doubts that our local library embraced all patrons, but these expanded offerings show just how seriously our library officials take their mission to be relevant and helpful to everyone in the community. There is much diversity across borders of sexual identity, sexual orientation and gender, and, as the marking of Gay History Month reminds us, we all deserve to be considered equally.

So, we applaud the library’s inclusionary approach and its addition of titles, fiction and nonfiction, to serve the LGBTQ community. Building the collection has been the work of reference librarian Hubert Kozak, who studies journals and reviews so he can select works of the highest quality for inclusion on the Burbank Library shelves. He’s also arranged for Lillian Faderman, author of “The Gay Revolution,” to appear at the Buena Vista Branch Library on Tuesday. We hope this event draws a crowd.

But whether it does or not, we can all take pride in the boost of LGBTQ reading materials at our cherished libraries, the most recent demonstration of our city’s progressive nature.