I once read an address delivered by Dr. Douglas Freeman at the dedication of the library at the University of Florida. Dr. Freeman was for many years the editor of the Richmond News Leader and the author of a Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Robert E. Lee. At the close of his address he made a rather startling observation that the most important thing about a library was not to be found in the size of the building or the number of books on its shelves. Its future usefulness would be determined by whether or not there was love for human beings on the part of those who served in it. Justifying this observation from personal experience, he told how as a boy of nine he accidentally walked into a private library in Richmond. A kind librarian who loved children ignored...