We librarians are reluctantly closing branches, slashing book orders, canceling hundreds of magazine and newspaper subscriptions and preparing to lay off hundreds of employees. Your library is being diminished to the point that it is in danger of becoming irrelevant to the community it strives to serve.

I am a librarian with the County of Los Angeles Public Library. I helped close two libraries last fall, posted signs begging the public to buy books for us, canceled subscriptions to magazines that our patrons needed and enjoyed and nervously eyed my place on the layoff list. Almost everywhere in California, the story is similar. No one seems able to argue the libraries' case, not when they're up against public safety or social services.

Most government services are based on the principle that things will always go wrong: crimes happen and so we need a police force; fires occur and so we have a fire department; people get sick and so we need hospitals.

The library is that rare sanguine institution within a generally pessimistic system. It is eternally hopeful. The existence of a library is society's way of saying to the individual, "We believe in your potential. You are important to us. We've provided this resource because we know that we'll be paid back many times for our investment in you."

Libraries are also a bargain. Our department's current budget is about $64 million, a little more than one-half of 1% of the total L.A. County budget of $11 billion. For every $100 of county spending, libraries get 60 cents. At this level we were able to build a library system that circulated millions more items than any other library in the United States, registered 1.3 million new borrowers in the last three years and was visited by more than 12 million people last year. County libraries sponsor summer reading programs for thousands of children and are home to the renowned Ethnic Resource Centers; they provide literacy and English-as-a-Second-Language education and referrals for all of Southern California. There are 85 branches spread over 4,000 square miles of L.A. County, down from 93 branches. Under the most recent budget scenario, more than half of the remaining branches could be shuttered.