To the editor:

Regarding the Jan. 25 editorial comparing (or not) Lawrence’s and Topeka’s needs for expanded public libraries:

I have been a library patron for over 40 years. Wherever my family was living, probably from the age of 7 on, I could be found perusing the shelves of a local public library. Some of my strongest memories from childhood are of walking home in mirage-producing heat, books under my arm, reading as I walked the near-empty streets in the summer days of the desert town where I grew up.

There was not in our town a university of any kind to which community members could go for higher-end book borrowing. To imply that Lawrence’s needs for a complete library that serves the entire community in ways that our current building does not, is to ignore that not everyone here cares about the university’s collections or would benefit from them even if they did want to make the hike up the hill.

I agree completely with the principle of nonduplication of services. But let’s remember that there is a larger Lawrence beyond the Lied Center, the Arts Center, the Spencer museum, and Kansas University.

M.G. Roy,

Lawrence