On the value of libraries, in case anyone asks

Jumping around through a few blogs I keep up with, I came across the article written by Mr. Stephen Abram, VP for Innovation at Sirsi on the value of libraries. The article makes for great reading and provides plenty of evidence of why libraries are valuable to society and how much they give back to their communities. The article is specially noteworthy as it makes a good effort to include other types of libraries besides public, such as academic and corporate libraries. Michael Stephen's Tame the Web links to it with a couple of other items, and Alice of It's All Good, a blog maintained by three OCLC staff members, also links to it with some commentary. This is the type of material that librarians need to keep handy for when someone asks why do we need a library. A bibliography of mostly free web resources is included in Mr. Abram's article.