Alright, you don’t have to give me your age if you don’t want to!

 

I’m 42 years… young—I’m fabulousss…

(Laughing)

 

So what brings you to the library today?

 

Book club.

 

How was it?

 

Book club is always a delight!

 

How is it a delight?

 

I’ve been coming to book club on and off for about 7 years and it is great to be a part of something that has a history linked to the neighborhood and has a history linked to this fabulous library and that it has this collective group of women of such a range of ages—I always think of many of them… some who are now dead…

 

Yeah.

 

Some of these women were the first educated women in this country, I mean some of them are old enough be the first ones with a college education and it’s a really major treat to sit down with these women who have read more books in their lifetime that some people even know exist!

 

I know—

 

—and to have this opportunity to talk about literature with them is pretty major, so for me coming to book club is like really a treat, it’s like a gift—it’s really something to be a part of this.

 

What does the library as a concept mean to you?

 

The library is the joining force in America, it is the symbolic representation of democracy, it is the place that says that all people have the same rights to information and that all people have the same rights to benefit themselves through access to knowledge—that you could pick up any book in this library at any time and you can walk out of here—by just giving a little information to get a library card. There is no other thing in America that gives you something for free and is such a place of democracy. This is a place where all people are the same—it doesn’t matter how much money you have or how little money you have—you get the same service.

 

Very articulate! Is the library more than a concept to you? Do you use the library actively?

 

Actively! Actively!—The library is America’s symbolic representation of democracy and freedom and equality!

 

Wow. Anything you are reading or watching or listening to that you’d recommend?

 

I’ve been reading a lot of periodicals lately because I had gotten very behind on the New Yorker—it’s interesting we are reading Outliers next month, I read a Malcolm Gladwell piece about alcohol and these alcohol studies in the '60s that fascinated me.

 

Cool!

 

Also, I found a book that I’d gotten into… oh, darn, the name escapes me…

 

So while you’re thinking I’ll ask you something goofy! What’s your sign?

 

Aquarian—obviously.

 

Describe an Aquarian.

 

Oh—total idealist, you know—they believe that everything should be a certain way—and we have a really hard time with the way the world is—

 

I think that ties everything together—thanks Whitney!