Always great to see a non-academic source talk about how great libraries are. From Kyle Western’s sidebar about democracy in the July/August 2007 issue of Men’s Health:

“President Franklin D. Roosevelt noted that public libraries are ‘essential to the functioning of a democratic society.’ But libraries are often first to go when local budgets are cut. Support yours by always paying your fines and by donating used books, CD-ROMs, and DVDs. And instead of buying from Amazon, check librarybooksales.org first–it sells books from local libraries across the country. Back your library and you’ll strengthen the state economy, too: a South Carolina study found the return on investment for every $1 spent on public libraries was $4.48–that’s nearly 350 percent.”

Of course, instead of buying a book from Amazon, you can just check it out of your library.