Hello from Alaska

I'm writing this from Fairbanks, Alaska, where I've been speaking at a conference for Alaskan Librarians. It's been great meeting these folks and learning from their experiences. As one librarian said to me yesterday, "Sometimes we are the most dangerous people in the village, since we are ways people can get information."

It's wonderful to be up here, and I'm sorry to have to leave again this morning. Being around all these librarians reminds me of a library I visited in Jakarta last spring. It was a tiny space carved out of one of the slums that's been built up under the freeway overpasses - thousands of people crammed into this space. A woman decided that the community needed a library, so she negotiated with the local gamblers and others, and managed to create a safe, bright space where children can go after school and learn and play, and where adults can come to read and escape from the difficulties around them. The world owes a lot to librarians.