I have fond memories of going to the Trenton Public Library's Briggs Branch throughout the summers of my life and while I was a student, until I graduated from Trenton Central High School. The librarians there taught me valuable skills that transferred into my college education and graduate school, where I had no difficulty accessing my college's and university's libraries for research papers and assignments.

Communities with modern libraries often reflect that community's dedication to education to the highest degree. A visit to the Princeton Library will provide one with a view of a respect for the literary community that bibliophiles enjoy as one would enjoy a well-prepared gourmet meal.

Closing the Trenton Library's four branches presents a disregard for the children in our community ("Users mourn shuttering of libraries -- Paradise lost," July 16). I believe that without the libraries, I would not have gone to college nor to graduate school. As a parent, I would never allow a child or teenager to venture alone to the main branch on Academy Street, due to the crime rate in that area.

The library needs the necessary resources in order to continue to serve the community. Becoming a part of the county library system, without a city branch, would once again place information outside of the boundaries of our children's reach.

We need to dedicate our money and resources to our future. Alongside schools, our libraries serve a necessary function. I would have preferred a more pointed and outraged response from City Hall regarding how to preserve our libraries year-round versus lengthening summer-only pool hours as a recreational resource. The presence of only one library in the city jeopardizes our future as a city, because it disregards our most important asset: our children.

Selma L. Harvin,

Trenton