$1 Invested Yields $5 Return

It starts long before the library opens.

At some of our libraries, patrons can be found in our parking lots at 7:30 in the morning. Why? To "park" on our free public wifi.

The doors open at 9 a.m. Always, there's a line.

Some race to the Internet computers. Others head to the newspapers, hold shelves, or reference desk.

By 10 o'clock, we get the storytime surge: moms and kids.

By 11:30, the lunch crowd starts to arrive. People race in to grab their books from the hold shelves. Other people browse, or sit and read.

Shall Library Funding be Increased?

Imagine that you run a business, and that you're doing very well. By every measure that matters, the demand for your services is on the rise. In fact, over the past five years, it's up by124 percent.

Not only that, your market share is growing. Eighty percent of the households in your target area are solid customers.

The Wisdom of Crowds

In 2004, James Surowiecki wrote a book called "The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations."

The basic idea is this: if you quickly poll a bunch of people about what they think is true, the mean of their guesses is usually close to right. Surowiecki marshaled a lot of evidence to prove the point.

This month's guest column is from the ever bubbly Vonja Hunt, of Lone Tree.

Perspectives on a Library

By Vonja Hunt, Neighborhood Library at Lone Tree patron

Li-bary (pronunciation as a child).

No matter how you cut it or say it, libraries today are definitely an inviting necessity in our lives. And inviting they are! A far cry from the dismal drear of the ‘60’s library that shaped my world.