I’m all in favor of books. But frankly, libraries in the traditional sense are something of an anachronism. 20,000 books is fine, and maybe there were a few good ones in the bunch. But I’m guessing most of them hadn’t circulated in years. And books are cheap enough and available enough that even a “poor” kid at Cushing can get them easily and cheaply – surely much cheaper than paying salaries for librarians.

I think Kimball is taking a cheap shot here. It’s one thing to forward learning – yet another to retain 19th century technology.