Times are lean, of course, and the county is looking to trim costs wherever possible. To that end, the county manager's proposed budget calls for closing those two library branches in order to save a little more than $45,000.

To most of us, that's a lot of money. But it's barely a drop in a $177.6 million budget, and it has never made sense to us to eliminate such an important public service in order to save that relatively insignificant amount. Several of the commissioners, in budget discussions, have resisted the idea of closing the libraries. We hope they stick to that position.

The branch libraries are a bargain whose benefit to the community far exceeds their cost to the taxpayers. They are precisely the kinds of services -- those that offer a whole lot of bang for a little buck -- we ought to hang onto.

The Carrboro Branch Library has never had it easy. It's inside McDougle Middle School, which limits its operating hours and visibility. But few libraries have a more fiercely dedicated group of volunteers and supporters, and in spite of its challenging site the library serves many thousands of people every year. It also supports an excellent year-round arts program.

Its location on the west side of Carrboro makes it easily accessible not only to all of that town but to residents throughout southwestern Orange County. For those folks, both the Hillsborough library and the Chapel Hill Public Library (not a part of the county library system) are a long way off, and the Chapel Hill library is already stressed by overuse.

That overuse, in fact, is evidence aplenty of the importance of good libraries. Here in the most densely populated part of the county, we're loving the Chapel Hill library to death. It's essential to preserve an alternative; if we close the only other full-service library in southern Orange County, we'll put that much more pressure on the Chapel Hill one.

The proposal to close the Carrboro and Cedar Grove libraries appears to be meant not only to cut costs but to consolidate library operations in Hillsborough, where the county's new main library is set to open this fall. The proposed budget calls for transferring staff from the branch libraries to the main library.

The main library will no doubt be a fine and useful facility, but we hope that plans for staffing it aren't predicated on closing the branch libraries in order to free up their staffs. It would make little sense to close a library like Carrboro, in the part of the county where most of the people are, in order to shift those resources to a library in a less populated area.

A library is not a necessity in the same sense that food, water and shelter are, or even in the sense that basic public services such as police, fire and sanitation are. But once those basic needs are met, libraries are among the first things any responsible community will establish and protect.

Libraries are centers of knowledge, of learning, of creativity and culture and connection to the wider world. They are among the most democratic institutions we have; they open the doors of information to everyone -- rich and poor, young and old, the mighty and the meek.

And because those doors are open to all, regardless of income or influence, libraries are most precious precisely when times are hardest, when resources are few and information is most valuable. This is hardly the time to empty the shelves and lock those doors.

We've told you where we stand on this issue. Now we want to know what you think. Send a comment of 75 words less, with the subject line "Agree or Disagree," to Dave Hart, associate editor, at dhart@nando.com. We'll print your responses here next week.