An Ode To Public Libraries - Editorial
When was the last time you visited the local library?
April 7 marked the beginning of National Library Week, a tradition now spanning more than half a century. The concept began as a small partnership to promote reading and library use, but has grown over the years to become a worldwide celebration of libraries and all that they offer—which might be more than you think.
Many of us in the newsroom are avid readers, born and raised. Being a young, voracious reader in the days before ebooks usually meant spending hours at the local library, wandering and searching between the stacks only to emerge with a tower of books as tall as we could carry. Some kids go wide-eyed in a candy or a toy store; for us, it was—and still is—a stack of books that elicits such joy.
Libraries have so much more to offer patrons than books and stories, though. They are treasure troves of physical media of all kinds, ranging from board and videogames to newspapers, magazines, CDs, DVDs and maybe even a stray VHS tape if you’re lucky. And anyone can access all of it for free simply by getting a library card.
Library services, too, go above and beyond thanks to the hard work of librarians. A student with a challenging research paper? A librarian can help with that. Need help learning how to work a computer program or simply printing something out? A librarian can help with that. Looking to dig through the archives of a national, regional or local newspaper? Ask a librarian.
One of our editors, in the midst of a family ancestry project, visited a local library looking for newspaper archives. Not only did she find them, but she learned that most libraries subscribe to the online genealogy tool ancestry.com and make it available for free on library computers for anyone to use. (She quickly canceled her personal subscription.)
Libraries also offer something else, something crucial and unfortunately hard to find these days: a place for the community, especially its youth, to go that is not school, a job or home. There has been recent discussion of how the number of “third places” for children specifically is declining—the days of spending Friday nights at the mall or movie theater are gone, thanks to ever-rising prices and inaccessibility of many kinds, namely transportation.
Libraries, though, offer a free, safe space for children that not only occupies their time, but enriches their minds. Library programs also give the opportunity to connect deeper with the community and meet new people. The Jonathan Bourne Public Library offers a number of free monthly events and regular programs for both children and adults. We publish that schedule both online and in print, hoping that our readers will take advantage of the various offerings available thanks to the hard work of library staff.
In recent years, arguments have been made that if libraries did not already exist, it would be impossible to establish libraries as we know them in today’s society. You can try, the argument goes, but the idea would probably be laughed off as some socialist pipedream. We think about that argument a lot. It unnerves us.
Barriers to education in present-day America already feel sky high—public education is severely underfunded, and college tuition looks like it actually might hit six digits soon. If we were to take the concept of libraries in their entirety out of the mix, what would be left over? Would our students have enough material, passed-down knowledge and scholarly work to learn, pass their classes and expand their worldview? Proper education without unfettered access to libraries seems unimaginable.
Public libraries are an institutionally equitable system that, thankfully, have stood the test of time. They are fundamental to our society and our democracy, yet public libraries remain the underdogs, the unsung heroes. As if in response to the notion that knowledge is power, public libraries have flipped that concept on its head and, in arguably one of the best uses of taxpayer dollars, have instead distilled that power down, making their wealth of knowledge accessible to everyone in the form of a free public library card. And for that, they deserve our appreciation, our attention, our patronage and our protection—now more than ever.