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24 June 2009

Ray Bradbury and the HP Wright Library, Ventura County (CA)

via the NY Times:  A Literary Legend Fights for a Local Library

“Libraries raised me,” Mr. Bradbury said. “I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”

Property tax dollars, which provide most of the financing for libraries in Ventura County, have fallen precipitously, putting the library system roughly $650,000 in the hole. Almost half of that amount is attributed to the H. P. Wright Library, which serves roughly two-thirds of this coastal city about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Here's a video of Bradbury talking at a Los Angeles library in 2007.

Posted at 03:02 PM in Public libraries |

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