> > > Most libraries require you to be a resident of the community where the library is. If you aren't one, you don't get a card, so you can't check out the books. Children are allowed to check out the books because they are considered to be paid for by their taxpaying parents.
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> > > >
> > > > -eric sleator
> > > > Thu 14 Sep A.D. 2000
> >
> > Now there's another problem. I live in Loudon County but only a couple of miles from Knox County. I cannot use the libraries on the other side of the county like because I don't have a Knox County address and presumably don't pay taxes there. Bull-oney! Most of the areas where we shop are in Knox County where the sales tax is about 8%, including the so-called local option sales tax. As a result we pay more taxes than some people who live there. If I lived in a trailer in Knox County and shopped at the big mall in Anderson County, I could check out all the books I wanted and still pay almost no Knox County taxes at all. If they are going to call them "public" libraries, they should be open to the public. I wonder how much state and federal money goes into Knox County libraries?
> > Howard
>
> I agree with you wholeheartedly. I sometimes use what they call interlibrary loans to access materials from other libraries. Sometimes the materials come from the University of Tennessee libraries. Please read the Library Friends Lecture presented by the acclaimed late novelist Richard Marius, presented on March 15, 1994 to celebrate the addition of the two-millionth volume to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville libraries. I found it very interesting indeed!

I followed the link, Calvin, but all I found was:
"Dr. Richard Marius offered an evening lecture that featured accounts of his own library experiences as a historian and a novelist. The text of Dr. Marius' lecture is included in this issue."

I never located the text of his lecture. I knew Richard briefly in 1988 and would enjoy reading anything he wrote.
Howard