Death of the Library

This is a melancholy and sensitive short piece by the poet and essayist Charles Simic on the closing of libraries in this country.  When I was a kid, I spent long periods of time in the local library where I grew up, and some of Simic's reflections about the nature of library reading -- a kind of leisurely macerative quality -- rang true for me.  My most recent extended library experience was at the New York Public Library tracking down some 19th century British articles and magazine pieces on microfiche.  That was fun too (what a library!), but more like the sort of directed reading that one does on the Internet.  I wonder whether libraries will still exist for my children's children.