For the past several years, I've been reprinting what I've come to think of as "my Christmas column" -- a tradition. I hope you enjoy it.

***

What we really need is an all-purpose gift that will satisfy everybody. It should be suitable for all ages. It should require no assembly. It shouldn't need batteries. You shouldn't have to feed it. It should last forever. It should be constantly entertaining. The more the recipient
uses it, the more he or she should like it.

And of course, it should be free.

Every now and then -- and the last column of the year seems like a
logical time -- I like to remind everybody what the Douglas County
Libraries are all about.

First and foremost, we are an independent library district, dedicated to
quality service. Where does our money come from? -- mostly, from
property taxes. While we are not a part of Douglas County government, we
do share the same boundaries.

How do we operate? The Douglas County Libraries hire smart people,

One of the surprises of the Internet was the discovery by thousands of libraries across the country that the hottest information commodity was ... what was going on in our own back yards.

Think about it. You won't use your local library as a portal to Google. You just go to Google.

Certainly, many of the people who use library terminals do go on to search a host of World Wide Web search engines and big databases.

For the past several years, I've been reprinting what I've come to think of as "my Christmas column" -- a tradition. I hope you enjoy it.

***

What we really need is an all-purpose gift that will satisfy everybody. It should be suitable for all ages. It should require no assembly. It shouldn't need batteries. You shouldn't have to feed it. It should last forever. It should be constantly entertaining. The more the recipient uses it, the more he or she should like it.

And of course, it should be free.