In today's Seattle Times, Nicole Brodeur agrees with my column from a few weeks back: It's time to draft Nancy Pearl to Seattle Public Library's board of trustees.

Even with a $50.9 million budget, the library will still have to lay off three staffers and cut back hours at 15 branches.

To remedy the shortfall, there's talk of forming a tax-supported library district, or earmarking current tax receipts for libraries. If officials get desperate enough, they might create a local sales tax dedicated to libraries.

Amid all that number crunching, we need someone at the table who deals in words, and knows how important books are to our quality of life.

Brodeur gets a curious quote from City Librarian Susan Hildreth, who seems to be implying that Pearl doesn't represent "the diverse nature of our community" (the outgoing board president, Michael Parham, is African American.) She also talks with Nancy Pearl about her feelings on the whole thing. You should go read the column and let Mayor McGinn know how you feel.