Burlington Washington's Public Library in a 8,388 Population Town

The building you see in the picture is the public library in Burlington, Washington.

I lived in Burlington, Washington from when I was around 5 years old til I was 19. Or 20.

My mom and dad remained in Burlington til sometime in the 1990s. Our house was about a block from the public library. But not the one in the picture. The library in the picture replaced the library that replaced the library where I first checked out a book when I was 5 or 6 years old.

The librarian in that old library was the mother of the librarian in Burlington's new public library.

That is the new Burlington library's librarian in the picture. Her name is Janice Jackson Burwash. She is married to famed Burlington author, Martin Burwash, who's latest best seller, Vis Major, is slated to become a major motion picture.

The population of Burlington, according to the 2010 census, is 8,388. That is about 3 times bigger than when I lived in Burlington. The town I live in now, Fort Worth, Texas, is about 84 times bigger than Burlington, with Fort Worth's population of over 700,000

Burlington keeps its public library open every day of the week, except Sunday. Fort Worth keeps a more erratic public library schedule.

Watch the video below to get an idea of the size of little Burlington's public libary compared to big Fort Worth's public libraries.

To be fair, little Burlington is a bit of a boomtown compared to Fort Worth. The population may be small, but the town has a big mall, an outlet center, a car selling complex, called I-5 Auto World, a Costco and a Krispy Kreme, along with most of the other fixtures you find in bigger towns, like K-Mart, Target and all the fast food suspects.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Burlington went into boomtown mode, the Wall Street Journal cited Burlington as one of the fastest-growing and best investment opportunities of American small towns.

Burlington's population soars during business hours. As in a lot of people come to town to shop. The number of people in Burlington during business hours is many times bigger than the town's population. I imagine if Fort Worth somehow managed to attract 5 or 6 times the town's population to town, maybe Fort Worth could afford a better library system, open more days and longer hours.

In the video below you will see Janice and the Burlington Public Library. I have not seen Janice in person since April of 2006, when she played the organ at my nephew's wedding. In Burlington....