| 06 November 2011
The medicine chest of the soul. — Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes.
As an adult, I'm still a loyal library user. A few weeks back, there was a lot of excitement in my Twitter feed and on Facebook about a mail order book rental service. A Facebook friend commented, "It's like Netflix for books!" to which I responded, "It's the library only not free." For those WNYers living under a rock, there's a pretty heated election for Erie County Executive going on right now. Libraries, how they should be funded and how much they should be funded, have been a fairly large issue. To me, it's a no-brainer which is why I've been stunned - truly stunned - at how much commentary I've seen along the lines of, "Well, who even needs libraries anymore?" I... just... what?!
Libraries are amazing resources in difficult economic times. When I made the decision to go back to school, we knew it was going to make money, which was already tight, even tighter. Our entertainment options are virtually unchanged, however, because of the library. We get books there, yes. But we also dropped Netflix and get our movies there. We dropped our magazine subscriptions and get them there. We get CDs there. When I blew through The West Wing last summer, that was courtesy of the library. Occasionally we have to wait for popular new releases, but we had to do that with Netflix too. AND we had to pay them money. Occasionally, we have to wait while the library moves materials we want from another branch to the one near us, but hey, the library will TOTALLY move things from one branch to another just because I want them to. And if I'm being honest, as tough as our situation seems sometimes, I know that Mark and I are in much better shape than a lot of people in the area are right now.
Which is why I'm not sure the real value of libraries is even about me. As those who have been reading this blog for a while know, before I went back to school full-time, I worked as a classroom aide at a school for kids with emotional and behavioral disorders. Most of them were from lower income families, many of them had parents who had little education, if any, beyond high school. The school was within easy walking distance of a local library. One year, we took the kids down there, got them all their own library cards, and took them to the library every couple of weeks. The first time we did this was super eye-opening. One of my favorite kids seemed to not really understand the concept. "Heather," he said, "what do I do?" "Pick a book, any book!" "ANY book?" "Yep." "It's free?" "Yep." "They're ALL free?" "Yes!" Libraries are about those kids. There is far too much research showing that kids' literacy skills are impacted by how much access and exposure they have to books to leave that to chance, to economics, to personal situations. Single parents, unemployed parents, low income families, they should all have the ability to surround their children with books even if they can't afford to buy them. Children who don't have any control over the decisions the adults in their lives make should have the ability to surround themselves with books.
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx
I can tell you, from that same job, that there's also a huge digital divide developing between classes, one that's going to absolutely cripple kids who are already living in the most unstable neighborhoods and going to the most underfunded schools, often with the least experienced teachers. It's hard for most of us to imagine, but there are many, many families in the world who don't have computers at home and don't have Internet access, and that really impacts a person's computer skills. Do you know how much there is out there for kids or adults who don't have good computer skills? I couldn't even get my part-time job at Wegmans without them because the entire job application process - as it is for many companies now - is online. The library is one of the few places addressing that divide and doing it, again, for free, by providing computers, Internet access, and regular classes on how to use both to anyone who shows up. I've seen many a librarian patiently explain to an adult how to do things like do a Google search and print a document. As much as some of us seem to want to believe that everyone who is unemployed or on welfare is that way because they're lazy, there are a lot of people out there who want to better themselves and just don't know how. Libraries are at least attempting to fill that gap.
The thing that I've found most surprising in the library discussion is how many people have said or written, "Well, gosh, I haven't set foot in a library in X number of years," and then used that to justify cutting funds or closing systems down. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Public services don't become luxuries just because YOU don't need them or use them. It wouldn't kill us to occasionally look outside the bubble of our own lives. If you have any doubt about whether people today use libraries, drive to the Kenmore Library on a Saturday afternoon. I've never been there and not seen it packed - parents with young children, teenagers, senior citizens. Country-wide, library use is up from last year and I can't imagine it not continuing to increase as wallets get tighter. A quick look at Buffalo & Erie County Library's schedule of events for November shows the following: numerous computer training classes, guest speakers in a series called "Imagining Buffalo in the 21st Century," preschool story time, a program in which elementary-aged students do science experiments with teen mentors, book clubs for pretty much every age, and music talks with members of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. And that's not including other things like training in writing resumes and taking job interviews, adult literacy tutoring, and assistance with things like tax forms. And again, it's all free. I cannot stress that enough. Completely and totally free.
A library book...is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, is their only capital. -- Thomas Jefferson
I think if anyone should appreciate public libraries, it's politicians, those who claim to be proud of and inspired by the ideals of the United States. We like to say that people in the U.S. can raise themselves out of any circumstances if they're only willing to work hard enough, but the truth is, hard work alone isn't always enough. Even the hardest-working and most ambitious need help and guidance, the kind of help and guidance that those of us at the top of the socioeconomic ladder too often take for granted. Everyone should have access to the same information, even if they don't have computers or e-readers or Internet access of their own. We all benefit from an informed and educated community. Public ibraries are one of last truly democratic institutions, one of the few places where, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, education level, or socioeconomic status, people can walk in and have access to exactly the same resources and exactly the same assistance. I love that about libraries. If that makes me idealistic, well, there are certainly worse things to be.
If there are other issues involved in the County Executive race that you feel are more important, that's certainly your prerogative. I understand that different things strike different people in different ways. But don't make the mistake of thinking that libraries are an unused and irrelevant relic of the past. Don't let someone like Chris Collins, who has admitted he doesn't use libaries, tell you that. It's simply not true.
Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.-- Walter Cronkite
