Library Tribute from Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor writes a love letter to public libraries in "The Liberating Silence of the Library."

(If the article doesn't appear right away on the screen, go to the 90-day archive and click on 6/26/2007.)

"The library is the temple of freedom. Growing up, we kids were aware of how much of our lives was a performance for adults. In school, at church, in Scouts, adults were watching, cueing you, coaching, encouraging, commenting, but in the library, you didn't have to perform for the librarian. She simply presided over an orderly world in which you had the freedom of your own imagination. The silence was not repressive but liberating: to allow your imagination to play, uninhibited by others. "