Because it “evens out the playing field for everybody,” libraries are important economic development tools, Christie Vilsack, wife of Governor Tom Vilsack said Saturday.

Vilsack, featured speaker for the Washington County Library Association’s Legislative Day in the Wellman Public Library, stressed that libraries give everyone in a community “equal access to information.”

If Iowans are committed to education, “then we have to be committed to libraries, too. It’s a partnership,” she said.

And, an important enough one, that the state needs to financially help fund libraries.

“Iowa is one of only eight states that does not directly support libraries,” she said, adding that her husband has recommended $l million for Enriching Iowa Libraries this year.

“And another $1 million added over a three-year period to fully fund libraries,” she said.

“Too often libraries have been regarded as frills and are the areas first cut in budgets,” she said, making it clear that libraries are extremely important as a means of “keeping the past and securing the present.” Therefore, support from city governments and the state is vital.

State funding will give better services, more materials, greater access to patrons, as well as help to train and prepare librarians. In fact, Thursday, Vilsack lent her name to the library cause advocated by the 1,600-member Iowa Library Association.

One of the keys to providing information and education is through the state’s Open Access which virtually gives residents access to any library in Iowa.

“I think I have cards to every library in the whole state,” she said, listing the great advantages to being able to access materials in “any town.”

In fact, the library for many small towns is “a source of community pride,” she said, noting that “if schools are the heart, then the libraries are the souls of small towns.”

Even more than a source of pride, the libraries “can connect all ages to the entire world” through both books and technology, for she has found that even in the smallest library there often is at least one computer, with Internet access.

“I am addicted to Iowa libraries,” she said, explaining that during the gubernatorial campaign the libraries—in town after town— provided “a place for a break, where I could sit for 15 minutes between engagements, and catch up.”

She has seen libraries that struggle with a $9,000 total annual budget, surviving because the librarian is a dedicated person, to a new, expansive one that is a total community center, including housing a coffee shop.

“The library is a source of community pride,” she said, noting that when people consider moving to a town “they look first at the schools, then at the library.”

In an era in which she has “seen the unraveling of communities with special interests groups pitted against each other,” the library has “proved to the place where common goals can be established, because it is a place where people can connect.”

And connecting people, information and recourses is important if communities are to meet the needs of the next century she indicated.

Referring to a recent television commercial, Mrs. Vilsack said, “one of the best gifts you can give a child is a library card.”