The right library can be a uniquely essential part of getting through crisis times.  The mission of a library is the gathering and sharing of knowledge, wisdom, and culture in the broadest sense.  In the best libraries people can find what they need to help themselves and one another.

There is no escape for me like opening up a book. Whether it's a new read, or a return to a favorite, or an installment in a favorite series - when I crack open that cover, I am transported. My brain takes off and visits (or revisits) entire worlds that exist as I digest the pages.

Nothing else can do that for me like a good book. I can't imagine life without them.

For me, reading has been an escape when I was overwhelmed, a friend when I was lonely, a sanctuary when life had ground me down, a teacher when I needed to know something new, and a real constant in my life when everything else was in chaos. I can't really imagine what life would be like without something to read! I grew up in a home chock-full of good books and have learned so much about the world because I can read stories about other cultures and customs.

I could get very flowery and poetic about how reading has shaped my life, but I won't. There is no way to deny the profound effect books have had on me though. As an only child, I have found books to be the siblings I didn't have. I have moved more times than I care to count, but there are a steady few books that always come with me, and many more that I miss once I've arrived. (A few of them - the constant friends - are Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett, and Why Cats Paint by Heather Busch and Burton Silver).

I'm only just beginning to understand now how much I've learned through all my reading for pleasure.  It started with simple things, like knowing what uncommon words meant: "Quahog? I thought everyone knew what that meant. Or did I learn that from Jacob Have I Loved?" Then it branched out to realizing I learned cultural history and social mores from Austen, Gilded Age transportation and economics from Edith Wharton, and it just goes on from there.  I keep reading because it keeps opening my eyes.

Reading is my lifeline.  As long as I can remember, I've been reading.  My parents tell me I taught myself.  Even before then, my parents read to me.

As a child, I moved around a lot.  My books were like friends that no one could ever take away from me, while my real friends would only last for a year or two.  As an adult, when something in my life goes wrong, I nearly always turn to a book.

Seventeen years ago I hid behind a tree when the bell rang at the end of lunch, more interested in Roald Dahl and L. Frank Baum than the second grade. Twelve years ago I took one bag of clothes and one of books to camp, and forgot my swimsuit. Seven years ago I moved to the wrong side of the country and couldn't properly locate myself, and so rode the subway with Philip Roth and William Goldman and Ayn Rand, the secret army I'd brought with me, until I knew the foreign city well enough. Two years ago I traded a book for a sandwich and I'm still not sure if it was the right move. Last night my friend found me on his doorstep reading Tolkien, and he laughed because the streetlight was blown and I was running out of matches.

Since my second home these days is my community's library, I admit to being obsessed with anything involving books! I am also fascinated by the remarkable stories of people acting to make the world a better place. So, I find the concept of building libraries in remote places around the world where people are struggling to survive very uplifting.

While I'm not sure there is one ideal library for communities in crisis, I'd like to speculate about some commonalities.