Library friends and regional library networks

1 he pre-White House Governor's Conferences on Library and Information Services have served to emphasize to all of us the importance of citizen input to and interest in libraries and library services. From around the country, reports of state conferences indicate that concerned citizens are banding together to form local, regional, and, in some places, state groups of lay people for the purpose of providing effective support for libraries. There is an excitement about libraries as a result of the pre-White House conferences. In a recent issue of Library Journal, we are reminded that "delegates are concerned citizens and have been preparing themselves for one year by reading, hearing, and thinking through thousands of resolutions, editorials, articles, etc." This statement refers to Oklahoma White House conference delegates, but it applies to lay delegates from all fifty states. However, not every concerned citizen is a White House conference delegate; many people who are involving themselves in statewide support groups represent local Friends of Libraries groups. Friends of libraries have been supporting their local libraries for many years. As Sandy Dolnick has so aptly pointed out, "All Friends of libraries are citizens. Therefore, all citizens are [prospective] Friends of Libraries." Growing interest in friends activities at the state and national levels gives credence to the belief that citizens do care about libraries.published or submitted for publicatio