DUKES FANS:
“Without libraries, what have we? We have no past and no future.”
Ray Bradbury, writer
“A society-any society-is defined and measured by its set of mutual benefits and duties embodied most visibly in public institutions: public schools, public libraries, public transportation,.....”
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich
"Nothing
sickens me more than the closed door of a library."
Historian
Barbara Tuchman
IT IS APRIL:
One of the things I love about April is that it is a month of wonderful bloomings and becomings that mean a lot to me. Despite the grey and rainy skies of this week so far, many of the trees and plants are blooming. Rosebuds, cherry trees, daffodils, tulips and more are standing bright against the grey, and bringing colors to our attention on streets, yards, and in planters. April is also a month of numerous celebrations, including ones for some important things that we need to be reminded of and that need coming into view. Yes, April has plenty of "silly" and odd celebrations: National Ferret Day, National Unicorn Day, National Cheese Fondue Day, National Licorice Day, and several other days and weeks that are either cute or just "weird. "But it also has observations that to me matter a lot and that I hope we can all pay attention to: National Autism Awareness and Acceptance Day, National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, National Child Abuse Awareness Month, National Earth Month, and more that speak to Robert Reich's old style notion of a society that involves citizens working together and looking out for and helping each other. Two of the most important of those type of observances to me are National Library Week and National Library Workers Day.
I am a library guy. People who know me and/or read this newsletter know that books, libraries, museums and such are things that have been big part of my life since my childhood, and that they have helped me become the person I am today. I got my first Philadelphia Free Library card when I was in 2nd grade, and over sixty five years later, I still have, and regularly use one. When my wife and I retired in 2015 she re-opened a public-school library at the Kelly School in Germantown. I volunteered there, and it is still going strong. So libraries matter to me, especially public ones.
Whenever I go out of town for more than two or three days, I guarantee that parts of at least one of those days will be spent in a library. On numerous camping trips my wife and I visited libraries in Kent County, MD, Kingston, ON, Buffalo, Little Falls, and Alexandria Bay, NY, and many, many others. Public libraries are, to me, one of the best expressions of any civilization and any culture, for in theory, they open up the world to all of its citizens and they offer the opportunity for each of them to become something and someone they probably would not be otherwise. They can help us each become, in part, the authors of our own stories.
Public libraries were where I first discovered many authors, artists,
and musicians that I have come to love and think of as life-long
friends. I would read the names of writers, musicians and songwriters in
newspapers, magazines, in books, on book jackets,
or on recordings. I would then go to the library to read them or hear
them, and a new love affair would start. Maps, art history, poetry,
history-whatever I became interested in, the library was there with
materials and, very importantly, librarians who helped
me delve into and encounter new ideas and ways of thinking about and
viewing the world. That continues today. I regularly donate to the
Philadelphia and New York City public libraries, for libraries and their
workers have been quiet mainstays of my life.
The library is often one of those things that people tend to take for granted, but it is often one of the very first institutions to positively respond to the things going on in society. It almost always interacts with us in powerful and supportive ways. Nothing proves that more than how they have responded to the COVID pandemic over the last three years. They have found ways to allow people to reserve, borrow and return books and materials, even if they were not open. They have provided numerous Zoom and streaming Meet the Author Events, classes, webinars, storytelling sessions, and more. They have increased links to online reference books, movies, and articles. They have found ways to maintain important special interactions with public schools and they have provided special educational resources for kids who are being home-schooled. How they have adapted to and kept themselves available for use during this crazy time has been nothing short of remarkable. They have found ways to be there; ways to keep helping us find things, explore, and learn.
Libraries are, to me, one of the greatest institutions we have in our
civilization. All civilizations have had them, going way back to ancient
times, and a lot of those cultures often judged the worth of their
civilizations, in part, on the size, variety and
number of holdings their libraries had. Yes, due to inadequate funding
and the pandemic, the number of buildings and the hours of current
library systems have been reduced, particularly in cities. Still, they
have managed to add computers,
ebooks,
homework clubs, digital platforms,
after-school programs, English learning classes, tax help, help in looking for a job and much, much more. They are still treasures.
I am thinking about this now as the news is full of accounts of attempts by politicians to limit what people, particularly teens and young students, have access to and can learn and hear about. Books in some places are being banned and removed from school and public libraries. This type of censorship is not new or unique to the United States. But it has been some decades since it has been as upfront and widespread as it is now. One of the unfortunate things that all authoritarian rule does is try to seize control of and change institutions-limiting what they can be and changing what they do and how they do it. We should have learned from our experiment with prohibition; banning liquor didn't stop people drinking, and worse things followed in prohibition’s wake. But throughout history civilizations often repeat their mistakes. And we are doing that again.
If you have been positively affected by the library and/or if your kids have had important experiences there, I urge you to donate to your local library and to take a role in helping them fight the political winds that are turning curiosity and learning into political hand grenades. Let’s celebrate National Library Week and Library Workers Day by showing how much they mean to you. They need us now, and we have to be part of Robert Reich’s mutual support so that we continue to have a full past and a variety of possible futures.
To donate to the Philadelphia Free Library:
https://libwww.freelibrary.org/support/ways-to-give/
No comments:
Post a Comment