Local libraries are doing a great job

Joe Wild, Las Vegas

Friday, Feb. 29, 2008 | 2:04 a.m.

Regarding the Las Vegas Sun’s Tuesday story “Bookstores aren’t our thing, but Vegas has literary life”:

I want to thank Joe Brown for his story on a topic that has been sadly neglected over the years, not just in Las Vegas, but everywhere. I was particularly gratified by the two links he provided to Web sites I was unaware of.

Having said that, I only wish he could have included a bit more kudos for the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District (perhaps a future article?). Having moved here in 1984 from western New York, I can recall when the Sunrise Mountain branch of the library occupied a small storefront at Nellis Boulevard and Harris Avenue.

Since that time, we have witnessed the explosive growth of Las Vegas and the expansion of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. Much criticism has been leveled at the way the district uses its funding, but at the end of the day, I believe we have one of the finest library systems of any large city in the United States.

Whenever I go into one of our libraries, I am amazed at the number of citizens making use of the facility, and have to remind myself that I am indeed in Las Vegas. People from across the country would probably be amazed to see a documentary showing so many people patronizing our libraries.

The concept of reading for pleasure was a gift passed on to my siblings and me by our parents just as we have passed the same gift on to our children and I would guess that all the schooling in the world cannot bestow that gift as effectively as a parent can.