Kyle Smith

The 3rd Annual Mary E. Finley Memorial Essay contest was held at the West End Branch on Saturday, April 24. Sponsored by retired librarian George Ferguson, the contest honors the late Mary E. Finley, one of the Library system's first African American librarians and a staunch believer in the importance of libraries and reading.

This year, over one hundred students from schools in the West End community prepared essays on the topic 'What the Library Means to Me'. From this pool, ten finalists were invited to read their essays in front of a panel of judges (former Ohio Representative William Mallory Sr., Children's Librarian Arnice Smith, and retired West End staff member Thelma Henderson). After some difficult deliberation, the judges announced the winner was Kyle Smith, a student at W.E.B. DuBois? Academy. Although Kyle won $100.00, no-one walked away empty-handed. Branch Manager Kathy Bach concluded the program by presenting all the finalists with a bag of prizes donated by local businesses.

Kyle Smith's Essay What the Public Library Means To Me The atmosphere at the public library is quiet. It is open to everyone, it is educational, and you can have fun. It is clean, comfortable, safe, respectful, and educated. There is no atmosphere like this at my house. The TV is always loud and my brother and sister are even louder. The library is a great place to do homework, or just get away from the neighborhood.

The public library is open to everyone. It is for the community, and it is free unless I forget to return my book. Even then the fees are much better than Blockbuster. No-one is rejected for membership by the public library.

There are educational things at the public library. They have research tools, books, computers, and they even have book clubs. Almost everything in a public library is a research tool. This is special to me, because I can't afford all of the valuable tools that the library provides. At school all the teachers tell me I'm the smartest. At the library I am reminded that I have a lot more I can learn.

At the public library, you can paint, play board games, and play computer games whenever you want. These are really fun activities. People think games on the computer are a waste of time, but even the army uses games to train soldiers. I found a school on the internet called M.I.T., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where you can learn to design video games. I checked and the library has books on that tool. Most important of all the reasons I love the library is that you can meet new people, learn in a good atmosphere and have fun. I meet other people who are looking at the same kinds of books I like. Since we have that in common, I know we can be friends. That is why I like the public library.

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