This is a totally random question. I just
thought of this. But what do libraries
and librarians mean to you and what have
they meant to you. Well, it's not that
random. Yeah, so librarians, for least
when I was growing, up a librarian helped
you learn to think, and that was a very
important skill. That, it was empowering.
You could look things up.  You couldn't...
you don't need... you know we have a
tendency to ask our fathers," How does
this work?  How does that work?" And sometimes
the grown-ups are not accurate. And so I
was really empowered to look things up
in the library. I really was just
fascinated by the photostat machine.
It would record your library card. I was
very proud library card carrier and the
big skill we need now from you all is
how to sort out the bad information. You
know, there's no shortage of
information now. It's figuring out which
ones are good and which ones are bad. And
this isn't true...we're not just talking about
the internet.  You can get magazines that
are glossy and beautiful which have just
as much bunk in them as any crazy
internet site. And so you got...and you can
find books written by people that are
very near the deep end of the pool. And
you got to learn to... we need your
help. Kids need your help to figure out
what's reasonable information and what
isn't.
The phrase everybody loves right now is
"critical thinking." That's good.
That's good. I mean when I was growing up,
it might have been learned logic or
learn to reason, but critical thinking
skills, that's pretty good. That's a good
phrase. Yes.
So that's... librarians... my library in
elementary school especially, was really,
just really meant a lot to me. I mean
that's where I would read Popular
Science. It's how to think. That's what I
learned from my librarian. I totally
agree. You know and for me growing up it
was, well actually I still am in touch
with my elementary school librarian.
I'm shocked. When she found out that, when
she found out that we were speaking here,
it was like, 
Oh, Wow! But you know I remember, they
introduced me to... well, my sister
introduced me to "A Wrinkle in Time," which
was like okay I'm gonna . I just bought
another copy.  But then
they introduced me to Susan Cooper, The
Dark is Rising series, and I remember
just so you know a librarian turned me
on to something. I'd be like, "What's this?" you
know,  "It's a woman author.  I don't want to
read it," you know, and then just falling
in love, like ready reading every single
book.
