Don Silverman has always felt that the library has been an important source of information. No matter what form it may take in the future, Don wants to be certain the library will be here to provide that function.
Goldie Gendler Silverman still has the first book she ever owned, a gift for her fifth birthday from her Uncle Harry. As a child of the Depression in 1938, the whole idea of owning a book was way beyond Goldie’s realm of possibility, but she was a reader, an avid reader, and she had an enormous store of books available to her in the Omaha Public Library. That’s where their mother took Goldie and her brothers on the streetcar as often as they needed (so it seemed to her then) to replenish the books they had brought home on their previous visit.
If Goldie and her brothers were well behaved, and if there was time, as they left “The Children’s Room” they could quickly climb the iron stairs in the main library to walk on the amazing glass floor that gave access and light to the upper stacks. A floor that was made of glass! Now a movable walkway takes Goldie through the stacks to the book she wants.
What an astonishing place was is the library!