ST. ALBERT, Alberta

Despite their obvious value to society, it goes without saying that public libraries are under assault in this wretched era of right-wing governments dedicated to the proposition public services should be shrunk to the point they can be drowned in a bathtub.

Cherry-picking supporters of this point of view nowadays argue that we hardly need libraries since we have the wonders of Google -- which is a little like arguing that we no longer need a fire department seeing as we all have running water.