Public library is quiet necessity in hard times

[Commentary] Librarians, like educators, municipal maintenance workers and other public servants, have had to tighten their belts in the past few years, but they still keep their doors open to all, checking out books, videos, laptops and other information media to anyone who bothers to sign up for a library card. "The function of a library more than anything else, we are a community center, one of the last public spaces in America, where anyone can come through the doors and access the books, the materials, the more scholarly databases," argued Ed Sheary, director of the Buncombe County Public Libraries.