
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 24, 1995                   TAG: 9501240077
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NOVEL IDEA

GIVEN THEIR campaign promises to improve education, promote economic development and enhance the quality of life, why have recent Virginia governors viewed public libraries - which significantly contribute to all three of these endeavors - as soft targets for fiscal machismo?

Not since 1987 has the state, under its own formula, provided full funding for libraries. The two latest governors - Republican George Allen now; Democrat Douglas Wilder before him - have proposed deep cuts from already inadequate amounts.

Perhaps it's because public libraries provide access to books, magazines, newspapers, videos, art, music, microfilms, databases and reference materials that almost everyone in their communities want, need and use from time to time, and that many people use regularly.

Maybe Virginians and their libraries lose out, in other words, because libraries serve the broad public interest rather than any particular special-interest group. No political-action committees to grease the libraries' way toward political attention via campaign contributions. No high-paid lobbyists to schmooze the libraries' case.

Repositories of rapidly changing information and rapidly expanding knowledge, libraries are tools for economic development as well as for education. Beyond that, public libraries are conservators of civilization; a way for all in a democratic community, regardless of economic or social condition, to tap into its common culture. This culture is constantly evolving; that's to be expected. It is also fragmenting badly, which is worrisome.

Chipping waste from state budgets is laudable. Hacking away at public libraries, an institutional underpinning of social progress and cohesion, is a crime.

by CNB