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Escanaba Public Library has much to offer

EDITOR:

This is my little story covering how much the Escanaba Public Library has to offer the people of our community and how devastating it would be on me and other members of our community if the budget was cut. I am a 38-year-old physically disabled citizen and an avid reader. After a brutal attack on me while camping in Big Bear, California, I had to change a big majority of my hobbies. Fortunately, I discovered the Escanaba Public Library (EPL). First of all, the EPL is so very handicapped accessible. And so currently, this is where I choose to “hang out.” However, while spending time among the books I discovered that, although my attack resulted in a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), my brain is still working and I have been blessed with the majority use of it. Because of the EPL, I became a blogger, discovered I am a writer, finished my Bachelor’s degree at Northern Michigan University, and realized I am obsessed with reading, knowledge, books and libraries.

I understand there are so many other ways to get your reading material these days, but not for everybody. Technology has made it so easy for us in the 21st-century – but only for some of us. Fortunately, the EPL has kept up with the times and the ability to get not only books but DVD’s, CD’s, audiobooks, eBooks, digital books, magazines, newspapers and not only from our library but from any library in the state participating in the inter-loan library program. One time while visiting the EPL trying to find more books in audio form, one of the librarians brought to my attention a program for hearing and visual impaired citizens called the National Library Service for the Print Disabled (NLS). This programed helped me so much and I would have never known about it if it wasn’t for the librarian at the EPL. Which brings me to, the staff – real people. And not only real people but dedicated, helpful, knowledgeable, and hard-working people. I have worked and “bugged” those Liberians in the past couple of years so hard I thought some weeks they were going to ban me from the library. But no, every day they still greet me so kindly when I come in and treat me like I am part of their family – the literary family that is!

So, in closing, cutting the funding to the EPL would severely handicap not only the library but me further. And not only me but the entire community that depends on so many programs – and many programs that I haven’t even touched on in my little story. The EPL has never let us down but we will let her down by not allowing her to offer all that she does and can to the people of our community.

Travis J. Thetford

Ford River

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