Last month, the American Library Association designated April 24 as “Right to Read Day.”

They did this in order to emphasize that, despite political pressure, it is important for all of us to advocate for everyone’s freedom to read widely.

We are fortunate that here in El Cerrito we are not facing this kind of pressure from narrow-minded individuals and groups who are afraid of diverse viewpoints.

Truly, in El Cerrito, the Bay Area, and in most of California the impulse to such censorship is rare.

In El Cerrito our greatest problem regarding availability of diverse materials is not banned books. It is the small size of our El Cerrito library that limits what folks can encounter while browsing the shelves for materials that might interest them.

Fortunately our City Council, the Friends of the El Cerrito Library, our Library Foundation and many enthusiastic Library supporters are working to change this situation by advocating for a new 21^st century library of adequate size to serve the growing El Cerrito community.

We will keep you up to date on developments regarding a new library with occasional news reports from the Foundation. If you know of others who might be interested in keeping track of this project, direct them to our Foundation web site at: https://eclibraryfoundation.org where they can sign up for breaking news as our BART Plaza Station Library project gathers momentum.