When communities invest in new libraries, the return on investment tends to be far greater than most of us expects. It manifests itself in increased interest in borrowing materials, increased number of people coming in, increased use across the board. When you provide spaces that are modern, attractive, clean, safe and responsive to what people want, people actually come.

248

Usually it's someone who's taking rare books where they have some marketability and hope for huge profits.

143

If you think about libraries built even 20, 30 years ago, they were about protecting books, keeping the light out, kind of creating an environment that kept people apart from the world. What you're seeing (now) is lots of glass. ... the library becomes very transparent.

140