Library touches a lot of lives and deserves our support.

Byline: TEAM SPRINGFIELD By Sid Leiken For The Register-Guard

Of the services offered by the city to its citizens, perhaps none reaches as many people as the Springfield Public Library. Well over 3,000 people a week use our library. In fact, numerous surveys have shown that the No. 1 reason people come to downtown Springfield is to use the library.

Our citizens use the library for a variety of reasons. The No. 1 reason is to check out books. Springfield residents borrow more than 300,000 items a year from our library. In addition, citizens come to the library to look up information on a variety of subjects; use public computers to access the Internet and other informational databases; fill out job applications and resumes; attend programs; and just simply to relax for a few minutes with a newspaper or magazine.

But nothing the library does is more important for the present and future quality of life and health for the Springfield community than the services offered to children. Many studies have demonstrated that children who enter school with good reading readiness skills become better readers, and retain this advantage throughout life. For this reason, the Library Youth Services Department focuses much of its time and energy on programs for preschool children.

Using grant funds from the Oregon State Library, Youth Services staff members work with about 200 parents each month, many of them young (high-school aged) mothers and fathers, teaching them reading readiness activities they can do with their children. At a recent City Council meeting, a representative from the state library presented the city and the library an award for having one of the six best early literacy programs in the state.

The library also sponsors many other programs for children and teenagers throughout the year. During the past year, more than 12,000 children and parents attended story times, craft and puppet shows, and other activities for our youth. Last summer, nearly 1,200 children participated in the library's annual summer reading program.

Recently, volunteers from the library and other city departments worked with the Springfield Rotary Club and Springfield School District on a `Gift of Literacy' day for all the first-grade students in the district.

As part of this day, all the kids heard stories read by community volunteers, and each child received a free book. For many of these children, this may be the first book that they can call their own.

We struggle to provide adequate support for our program of library services. Springfield ranks near the bottom, when compared to other cities our size, in the number of hours we are open and the number of new books we are able to purchase. I encourage everyone in the community to support our library and help it become even more of a community asset than it already is.

Sid Leiken is the mayor of Springfield.