Jessamyn West Quotes

The free access to information is not a privilege, but a necessity for any free society. One of my favorite things to do as a young man was wander through the stacks of my hometown library. I'd just browse until I found something interesting. Libraries have definitely changed my life.

The unlimited replication of information is generally a public good.

I think that the balance needs to be restored, and I would note that in the camp in which I am in, one finds libraries, universities, the Internet industry, the manufacturers of digital media, and consumers.

What is also strange to me is that public libraries have always been in the forefront of opposing censorship.

T]he Constitution does not guarantee the right to acquire information at a public library without any risk of embarrassment.

Providing free access to research papers on websites like Sci-Hub breaks so-called copyright law that was made to taboo free distribution of information on the Internet. That includes music, movies, documentaries, books, and research articles. Not everyone agrees that copyright law should exist in the first place.

A governing ethos of the Internet has been that whatever flows through it - information, ideas - is up for grabs.

More people should use their library.

A completely free library is as rare as a truly free lunch.

You share things with people and I think information, and art, and ideas should be shared.

With a public library card in your hand, you have access to the Internet and a world of opportunities.

Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations. Of all the institutions that purport to do this, free libraries stand virtually alone in accomplishing this mission.

Libraries should be open to all - except the censor.

I do not know exactly why, but it seems to me that images do not belong to anybody but are instead there, at the disposal of all.

Libraries hold the wisdom of the world and the stories of the ages - available to everyone, free of charge!

Libraries are community treasure chests, loaded with a wealth of information available to everyone equally, and the key to that treasure chest is the library card. I have found the most valuable thing in my wallet is my library card.

Throughout my formal education I spent many, many hours in public and school libraries. Libraries became courts of last resort, as it were. The current definitive answer to almost any question can be found within the four walls of most libraries.

Public libraries are the last vestige of public free space.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.

Keeping libraries open, giving access to all children to all books is vital to our nation's sovereignty.

If you get down about the state of American culture, just remember there are still more public libraries in this country than there are McDonalds.

Freedom is found through the portals of our nation's libraries.

Libraries are a hallmark of a civilized culture, and librarians represent that culture to all facets of society.

If you cut funding to libraries, you cut the lifeblood of our communities.

There is no such thing as intellectual property.