"The library, I believe, is the last of our public institutions to which you can go without credentials… You don't even need the sticker on your windshield that you need to get into the public beach. All you need is the willingness to read." ~ Harry Golden
For those with a willingness to read and learn, a library is a wonderland. AND as long as you return the books on time, your library is free!
As writer Jorge Luis Borges said, "I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."
According to the Association of Public Libraries, in 2002, Harvard University Library was the largest academic library in the world, with nearly 15 million volumes. By comparison, the world's largest library, the Library of Congress, had 19 million books.
Yale followed with 10.7 million and The University of Illinois had 9.6 volumes.
"A great library contains the diary of the human race," observed historian Thomas Carlyle. A great library system, Hawaii's State Library System, has 3,195,040 volumes. Really, a reader's celebration.
The cornerstone for the downtown Honolulu main branch was laid on October 1911. With front columns inspired by the Carnegie library, the beautiful library is located along the major bus line, on the corner of King and Punchbowl streets, next to Iolani Palace.
The library system runs with the mission "to serve as the lead State agency to provide individuals at each stage of their lives with timely access to information and to provide materials and customer services that foster reading and life-long learning."
Life-long learning, endless joy.
"In a library," said Ralph Waldo Emerson. "We are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends imprisoned by an enchanter in paper and leathern boxes."
More Library Quotations
A library is like a pair of open arms.