Libraries are no longer unfavorable stepchildren in San Diego. Mayor Sanders’ proposed budget includes funding for libraries with no cuts, no closures and hopefully no staff layoffs. Both North and South University Community libraries will get fulltime youth services librarians so necessary for communities because many schools no longer provide that service. Sanders, in his budget briefing at UC High School on April 16, told the audience he had heard the hue and cry last November when his budget proposed closures of seven libraries; one choice was University Community in South UC. Historian Barbara Tuchman speaks for many of us: “Nothing sickens me more than the closed door of a library.” With today’s economy or lack thereof, a library is the best gift our government gives back to us for our tax money. To an impressionable young child, a library with its storytime, endless rows of picture books and Dr. Seuss books is a wonderland. To an adult, it is a lifeline in tough economic times with available computers, resume writing sources and a place to go that’s free. Try sitting at Starbucks without buying something. Many libraries have movies, classes and concerts. Think of your own library experiences as a child. My memories are of a real Main Street in a real New England town like the mythical Grovers Corners, New Hampshire in Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” The Stratford (Connecticut) library was a few doors from the Congregational Church with its tall white spires, across the street from the Catholic Church with the tiny cemetery in the back, a few blocks from the only high school in town, where locals cheered on the football team, educators and especially the students. The Stratford library, with its Classic Romanesque design, is a massive gray stone building, a quiet fortress, where I loved to visit as a child, checking out books but not always returning them on time. Oh, those fines were real and stiff. The library was an evening study place for hormonally driven teens, whose giggles enraged the librarian. Her husky whisper of “Shhh” sent terror into our hearts like a rogue wave lapping the rocks at the local beach on Long Island Sound. I still love that library that expanded over the years and still is a part of the Main Street memory of my childhood. The library was originally built in 1894 and dedicated in January 1896. For 62 years, Miss Fanny Russell, the first librarian, ran the place, until 1958. Talk about job security. One addition occurred in 1955 with dedicated space of the children’s department and a reference room and offices. From 1979 to 1983, the library expanded by nearly 300 percent. It causes me great dismay that the new central library hasn’t been built, but maybe New Englanders value libraries more than stadiums. Today’s Stratford library schedule is enviable compared to University Community’s hours: Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. between October and May. University Community’s library is open 14 fewer hours per week than Stratford’s library. My next library experience was in another town, another state, when at age 22, with one foot in adulthood and one in the interest of kids not much younger than I was, I began a teaching career. I turned to the public library as a second home many evenings, where I would correct papers, research and read books. Not knowing many people, the library was a social venue too, a way to connect to others and decrease pangs of loneliness. Moving to San Diego, getting married, having children, the library still played an important role in my life. In 1972, in the Marketplace on Governor Drive, the library was in a storefront, and many of us young moms read to children at storytime. Finally the University Community library opened on Governor Drive, our Main Street. While it wasn’t a Classic Romanesque design, it was like a sweet little box filled with books to check out and a meeting room. Over the years, city fathers and mothers promised to expand it, to add parking spaces, to remodel it, but those promises were not kept. Now our little library temporarily closed on April 20 and should reopen on June 8 after a beautiful, overdue face-lift. New carpet and paint will give the library a good lift. Imagine how locals would feel if the library, one of those seven libraries set to go on the chopping block, had closed forever in November 2008 as suggested in the last San Diego budget proposal. Young parents and older folks who travel by foot on Governor Drive instead of car will really miss our library for the next several weeks. They should think about joining the local Friends group and revisiting some of the politicians’ promises to expand the library. I would love to arrange a field trip to the Stratford, Connecticut library and maybe head northeast to Boston to take in a Red Sox game or southwest to a Yankees game. I was only fooling about New Englanders loving libraries more than stadiums. There is equal affection for libraries and stadiums. If only that would occur in San Diego, we could be visiting our new Central Library in the near future.