Public libraries – we lose them at our peril
Levelers of privilege and avenues of reinvention
The United States is beginning an interesting experiment in democracy: We’re cutting public library funds, shrinking our public and school libraries, and in some places, shutting them altogether.
These actions have nothing to do with whether the libraries are any good or whether the staff provides useful service to the community. This country’s largest circulating library, in Queens, N.Y., was named the best system in the United States last year by Library Journal. Its budget is due to shrink by a third. Los Angeles libraries are being slashed, and beginning this week, the doors will be locked two days a week and at least 100 jobs cut.
Such cuts and close calls are happening across the country. We won’t miss a third of our librarians and branch libraries the way we’d miss a third of our firefighters and firehouses, the rationale goes…but I wonder.
I’ve spent four years following librarians as they deal with the tremendous increase in information and the many ways we receive it.
They’ve been adapting as capably as any profession, managing our public computers and serving growing numbers of patrons, but it seems that their work has been all but invisible to those in power.
But if you visit public libraries, you will see an essential service in action, as librarians help people who don’t have other ways to get online, can’t get the answers they urgently need, or simply need a safe place to bring their children. I’ve stood in the parking lot of the Topeka and Shawnee County Library in Kansas on a Sunday morning and watched families pour through doors and head in all directions to do homework or genealogical research, attend computer classes, read the newspapers. I’ve stood outside New York City libraries with other self-employed people, waiting for the doors to open and give us access to the computers and a warm and affordable place to work. I’ve met librarians who serve as interpreters and guides to communities of cancer survivors, Polish-speaking citizens, teenage filmmakers, veterans.
The people who welcome us to the library are idealists, who believe that accurate information leads to good decisions and that exposure to the intellectual riches of civilization leads to a better world. The next Abraham Lincoln could be sitting in their library, teaching himself all he needs to know to save the country. While they help us get online, employed and informed, librarians don’t try to sell us anything. Nor do they turn around and broadcast our problems, send us spam or keep a record of our interests and needs, because no matter how savvy this profession is at navigating the online world, it clings to that old-fashioned value, privacy.
A profession dedicated to privacy in charge of our public computers? That’s brilliant. They represent the best civic value out there – an army of resourceful workers that can help us compete in the world.
But instead of putting such conscientious, economical and service-oriented professionals to work helping us, we’re handing them pink slips. The school libraries and public libraries in which we’ve invested decades and even centuries of resources will disappear unless we fight for them. The communities that treasure and support their libraries will have an undeniable competitive advantage. Those that don’t will watch in envy as the Darien Library in Connecticut hosts networking breakfasts for its out-of-work patrons, and the tiny Gilpin County Public Library in Colorado beckons patrons with a sign that promises “Free coffee, Internet, notary, phone, smiles, restrooms and ideas.”
Those in cities that haven’t preserved their libraries, those less fortunate and baffled by technology, and our children will be the first to suffer. But sooner or later, we`ll all feel the loss as one of the most effective levelers of privilege and avenues of reinvention – one of the great engines of democracy – begins to disappear.
Marilyn Johnson is the author of, most recently, This Book Is Overdue! This article was written for and previously published in the Los Angeles Times.
July 21st, 2010 at 11:56 am
"The United States is beginning an interesting experiment in democracy:"
Or is it the contrary. Were the public schools and libraries the experiment? Is democracy itself a part of that experiment?
I personally read more then anyone I know yet I have not set foot in a library since I attended GCHS. I average 10-20 books a year, many of which are rather large volume's and treatises. For me however It's a waste of my time and a waste of my tax dollars to support the current public library system. The internet has alleviated us of all types of inconveniences, libraries are just one of them.
"But instead of putting such conscientious, economical and service-oriented professionals to work helping us, we’re handing them pink slips. "
If such services were economical to begin with we wouldn't need to fund them via taxation and subsidization. If they were economical they would instead fund themselves via their own market success. Unfortunately they cannot be demonstrated which means people are not voluntarily willing to pay for such institutions. So the comment provided is somewhat paradoxical.
If people wanted libraries they'd show up on their own in the market. And that is exactly what has happened…. http://www.borders.com/online/store/Home http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
The democracy of the market speaks bounds. People prefer these institutions to the archaic socialist programs of our past.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
And library districts will pop up, too. I think Gilpinites are the sort to support such a levy should it become an issue. Libraries will have to change like the rest of us to meet the needs of the times and retain support, whether through taxation, donation, or a private model. And indeed they do. Like the gentleman above, I have not checked out a book from a library in a precious long time, but I use our library in other ways, and know so many who benefit greatly, in ways that I would like to encourage in the community in which I live. I am open to ideas about the role our library would play in our community in changing times. One of those changes is attitudes about how government is used. It will need to be dealt with in any case, and will be a good test for our community to determine what it values. A library that can answer to concerns before they become an issue will fare better, but votes are the only true tally. We shall see.
August 1st, 2010 at 7:26 am
The “democracy of the market” is a fallacy. A truly “free” unfettered market will always lead to an unfree market through consolidation and monopolization unless regulations are put in place. It has happened over and over and over again throughout history. The idea of a free market is a modern myth, not based on any great body of evidence but pushed through persistent cultural fallacies espoused by the capitalists and randians as an overreaction to the extremely socialistic policies of early 20th century Europe. Capitalists do not understand any idea of public ownership or social responsibility because such ideas are not directly equated to dollars and cents, which is their only moral compass. They are happy to drive on public roads, hike on public trails and sidewalks, chat on the internet (originally a government project) and talk about the wonders of the free market, completely ignoring the fact that just about every aspect of their life is in some way greatly benefited by public infrastructure. The good that public institutions like libraries give us all is something a market can never account for. You canmot quantify culture and ideas and the greater effect they have on us all as human beings.
The greatest aspects of humanity itself are intangible. Love, family, friendship, curiosity and culture are beyond any market.