From the Lips of a Politician: a Mayor's View of the Power of Public Libraries

Mayor Dennis Donohue from the City of Salinas spoke about the importance of a library to a community. Only a few years ago the City of Salinas came very close to closing the Salinas Library completely, resulting in the City to mobilize and pass a measure to save it. Mayor Donohue was not mayor at that time. Some of the more pertinent and important messages he delivered included: - libraries and library advocates need to tell their story. This is an offensive move versus staying silent about everything we do. Good thing Margaret and Angelica are working on an organizational storytelling grant for their Eureka! project. - libraries are a strategic service that can bring communities together - libraries are places people can go to find and make something better for themselves - the best way to stop something from happening (like libraries disappearing) is to prevent them from even thinking about it in the first place - and, he ended with saying that libraries should create a culture of innovation in their organization. Thought he was very timely. Michelle