Why do you support the EPL Branches? Add your voice!

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There are many authors who live in Evanston who have shown their support for the EPL Branches.  Read what they say below.  We also want to know why YOU support the EPL Branches.  Tell us why you support the EPL Branches below!

“Save Our Libraries!”  — Syd Lieberman, Author and Storyteller

“The Evanston branch libraries have been important to the lives of neighborhood children and retired people and people who work at home. Evanston is known as a civilized community with a high degree of cultural opportunities – perhaps the most civilized in the Chicago metropolitan area – and such a community does not, ever, close down libraries.”  — Joseph Epstein, Author

” To the Evanston Public Library.  May the Guardians be with you as you fight the good fight to keep the North and South branches open…”  — Kathryn Lasky, Author

“The effort of Evanston Public Library Friends to keep city libraries open is crucial to the vitality of the city.  No modern technology can replace the living experience of browsing in a library, holding a book in one’s hand, and interacting with others who share a passion for learning.  For me as an educator, the library has always been the heart of the academic experience, not just as a resource but also as a validation of the past and an extension into unknown lands and to people different from ourselves.  The public library had a seminal effect on my own life and now, with two grandchildren ages five and three sharing my life in Evanston, I hope it can have the same effect on them.  It is one of those vital institutions that should not be allowed to perish.  John Milton said it for all of us:

“A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit.”  — Theodore Gross, Author

“When I was a boy I thought of books as magic carpets launched from the minarets of libraries. Their sorcery introduced me not only to literacy but also to knowledge.
Libraries today are still islands of enchantment, but their role has expanded immeasurably as the world has changed. They deal in digital data as well as print on paper. Their communities increasingly rely on them as repositories of information and expertise.

Libraries help introduce children to literacy. Libraries strengthen their parents’ critical thinking. Libraries help older adults stay in touch with the world.

A sophisticated university city the size of Evanston needs not only a large central library to anchor its downtown but also branch libraries to serve its neighborhoods.”  – Henry Kisor, Author

“For me, the library is a miracle, a mysterious map of the human heart.  A place where human thought and dream, longing, despair and hope flow like breath through the community.

It is not only the physical beauty of each book that I love, but more so, the deep personal connection between one who writes a book, and one who reads it.  It is the sharing of the human experience in this way, that I love.

The Evanston Public Library holds a special place in my heart because it is where I got my start as an author / illustrator of children’s picture books.  Our shared love for the children’s room book collection and the excitement of sharing these beautiful books with children was the fertile soil in which the seeds of my passion and profession as a creator of children’s picture books grew.”  — Laura Nyman Montenegro, Author

“I am glad they gave the libraries a reprieve, but asking you to come up with that much money in a recession seems a bit like asking the princess to spin straw into gold. But, you seem to have a very enthusiastic group, so I hope it can be done.  I am happy to help, just let me know what you are doing and when.”  — Audrey Niffenegger, Author

“I would rather hold a book in my hands than read anything online.  The Evanston Public Library is a treasure.”  — Pat Rahmann, Author

“Libraries are so important in so many ways, and I am completely supportive of all efforts to keep Evanston’s libraries open.  Please let me know if you need more from me”  –  Cara Lockwood, Author

I live in Evanston, just around the corner of the South Branch (“MY” library!).  There is not much near here, and I do not drive, but this is the hub of the entire neighborhood.  The children come here; the retired come here, mothers, students, I come here.”  – Charlotte Kopponyi, Evanston Resident

“Dear Fellow Friend of Evanston Libraries – Let’s continue to work together as a community to enrich all of our lives.”  — Susan R. Sneider, Author