Syracuse.com Talks With ALA President and Syracuse U. Professor, Barbara Stripling

Stripling talks about the importance of libraries, books, reading, and The Declaration for the Right to Libraries in a new Syracuse.com/Post-Standard article titled,
“Syracuse educator at forefront of national charge: ‘Libraries change lives'”
From the Article (approx 1000 words):

As a child, Stripling and her sister read everything they could from a library bookmobile that traveled to their Texas neighborhood. Stripling remembers her elation when the bookmobile arrived, excitement similar to what many of us felt on childhood visits to neighborhood libraries.
That sensation, Stripling said, goes beyond a simple joy in books.
What it reflects is a child’s innate hunger for knowledge.
“Libraries are such an important part of our democracy,” Stripling said. “They involve a conversation about ideas, about bringing together people who aren’t the same, about access to diverse information.” She spoke of her own love of reading, how a book provides the opportunity “to understand things that in the world I’ll never get to experience.”
As far as she’s concerned, “libraries are the cornerstone of democracies.”

Read the Full Text Article
See Also: Barbara Stripling’s Bio and CV (via Ischool.syr.edu) and Her Personal Homepage

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Libraries, News