When I was teaching, I was really surprised to find that several parents of my students were driving their kids to the Marysville Library to do research for their homework. The idea puzzled me, so the next time I drove by the Marysville Library I stopped in to see if I could figure out why. I could hardly believe my eyes. It was wonderful. I didn’t know libraries like that existed. It was hard to believe that library was in the same library system as our Arlington Library.

Another day a few years later, I worked helping prepare a quilt show in Monroe. There was a pre-view party that evening, and having nowhere to go in between, I went to the new Monroe Library. Wow. Shocked again. It was very nice and had many more books than our Arlington Library, especially in the reference section.

Later yet, I discovered that Sno-Isle has a very interesting genealogical collection, all in one place, at the Snohomish Library. On my first trip there, I again was astounded as I viewed the wonders of what a 21st century library can provide for a community.

Our Arlington librarians are wonderful, they do a lot to help us library patrons, but they are not magicians. Our current facility does not have the space to contain the number of computers and the other materials that are offered right on the shelves, right there, ready for today’s use or checkout, in the very modern libraries I’ve mentioned above. I wish I could pack all you Arlington voters into a giant bus and drive you on a tour of these other wonderful new libraries. I wish you all could see these libraries for yourselves.

Please people, please, let’s vote to raise the standard of living, for our selves and our children, right here in Arlington. A new, modern, larger library is within our reach. We can give our librarians, and ourselves, “The Magic.”

Bea Randall