By Shari Randall
In all the years I worked in a public library, there was
only one time a patron became angry with me.
A few minutes before closing, a man hurried into the branch.
He needed materials to prepare for a test. Because English wasn’t his first
language, it took a few minutes to figure out what he needed but soon we were
in the stacks and I handed him the books he requested.
“Where do I pay?” he said.
“It’s free, all you need is a library card.” Usually this
line was met with happy surprise.
Not this guy. His face reddened. “No, it can’t be. You’re
joking with me.”
I shook my head. “Let me show you where you apply for a
library card.”
“No, I have money! No credit card!” he shouted.
After some conversation, he understood. As I helped him get
his card, the man apologized profusely.
“In my country,” he said, “there are no libraries, just
bookstores. Only rich people have books.”
His words have stuck with me because he opened my eyes.
There are places where only rich people have books.
I never thought it would be my country.
Currently in Washington, there are proposals to eliminate
agencies that provide federal funding to libraries all across America. Despite
its tiny budget, the Institute of Museum and Library Services is on the chopping
block. ILMS funds grants to libraries and museums of all kinds - rural
libraries, tribal libraries, suburban libraries, inner city libraries, school
libraries. If you know anything about libraries, you know they do everything on
a shoestring. Now even the shoestring will be gone.
Someone explained to me that it’s easy to eliminate agencies
with small budgets because if the budget is small that program must not be very
important.
When I look at my home budget, I notice that one of the
smallest outlays is for water.
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| from Karen Jensen, School Library Journal |
Many years ago, news icon Walter Cronkite said, “Whatever
the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant
nation.”
Many in the ignorant nation think libraries are non-essential.
Everyone has a smart phone, right? The “let them eat cake” people say, “just
Google it.”
Tell that to a librarian who sees thousands of kids without
books of their own, homeless teens doing their homework on a library computer, small
business owners researching tax strategies, students struggling to discern real
news from fake, and immigrants trying to get a better job by checking out test
prep materials that you can’t get on the internet.
If you love your libraries and want to help, check out this easy to use site from the American Library Association. On Twitter you can follow #saveIMLS.
Are you a library lover?
I volunteer at my local library. The library here forgave all fines for overdue or lost books for children because they discovered that children from lower income families were denied services were often the ones with those issues. Librarians believe that those children needed library resources that children of wealthier family could get elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that, Warren. Your library sounds terrific - they understand how important it is to be a place kids will enjoy and not fear. Thank you for for volunteering. To say that libraries rely on volunteers is an understatement!
ReplyDeleteLibraries are a necessity. When I moved to Cincinnati, a library card was the first thing on my list, followed by a source of decent coffee beans. Priorities.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Shari. Thank you so much for this!
ReplyDeleteI'm so proud of my little town. Our library has been working hard the last few years to expand offerings and serve the needs of the community, but the building is tiny. This spring, we passed a sales tax in part to help build a new library, despite some community grumbling that the only patrons are teenagers playing computer games. Every time I visit, though, the place is hoppin' with patrons of all ages -- and some of them (like me) are checking out books! Libraries are essential.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this information, Shari! Amid all the other craziness going on, I hadn't heard about this senseless cut. Such an important place of learning for all ages. I chose my new home, in part, because it's close to a wonderful library. I'm checking out the link that you offered!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post, Shari. First cuts to public television and now libraries. The dumbing down of America continues. My library is very valuable to me. In fact, if I lost my wallet, I would be more concerned about my library card than other things in it. Although I buy books, I couldn't afford to read at the rate I do without my library. My most recent discovery was learning that I could download audible books from the library to my cell phone. What a pleasure. Your post has done two things: raised awareness about the plight of libraries and motivated me to send a contributions to the Fairfax Library Foundation, which I am going to do right now. And thank you for being a librarian.
ReplyDeleteWe've been working on "dumbing down" the public for years.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, the original purpose of public education was to establish an informed electorate, who could participate intelligently in the democratic process. When the state in which I was teaching (I won't name it)ran short on their funds for their enhanced, invasive testing system, the first thing to go was the "citizenship test." Without the test, the entire concept of teaching basic citizenship was gone, and most schools dropped the subject entirely.
A lot of people don't seem to understand there are lots of kids who do not come from families that can provide for them. Homework is on-line (what do you say to the kid who lives in a rural house with no electricity, much less internet? Or the homeless kid who sleeps in a car or shelter?)
Libraries can be a great equalizer. They have something for everybody, if we would just take advantage of them. But some people just don't understand.
I remember being at a funding meeting where a man got up and said the libraries didn't need any more money. He was sure that almost no one in the room had read all the books in the library yet, so why give them money to buy more?
Up north we have an inefficient (from an economist’s perspective) system in which in our county of 10,000 people we have three separate public libraries. Despite this duplication of some overhead, two of the libraries are critical to our childrens’ development. (The third is very small, providing a small circulating library for a village of 200). I support one with my taxes (and the community has even voted to increase those expenditures). I am a life-member of the “Friends of …” for the second.
ReplyDeleteThose two provide wonderful early reading programs, and lots of computers for online research (and even gaming for the kids). When I go in shortly after school is out, the computers are being used by students doing homework. They give children and adults access to physical and online magazines, wide choices in books (physical, audio, and electronic).
I love libraries and have all my life from the small school library to the bookmobile, and the Warren Public library in the town closest to me that my father took us to on a Saturday when I was growing up sometimes. The whole idea of cutting back on funds for libraries just sickens me. I have a card for the Warren Public Library with branches in different areas around the town. Their parking lot is always full. It's where my writers group meets.
ReplyDeleteA also have a library card for Trumbull Independent Public Libraries which has six libraries not covered by Warren Public Library. One of those is in the little town where one of my book clubs meet at a restaurant on the third Thursday of every month for a book discussion followed by lunch.
I donate the books I write to many of the libraries around me, and sometimes other books for their book sales to raise money.
Hi Margaret, Priorities! You got that right!
ReplyDeleteHi Art! Thank you for sharing this. We have to save the libraries for kids like Dash.
Hi Julie, I'm proud of your town, too. To me, a thriving library is a sign of a thriving community.
Hi Becky, I choose my homes the same way - I couldn't live in a place without a library! thank you for checking out the ALA's information, too. Maybe by working together we can spare the IMLS.
ReplyDeleteGrace, you are a dear! I'm with you - I simply cannot understand how such an inexpensive agency - which does such great work - is slated for the chopping block. As Margaret said, priorities!
ReplyDeleteHi Kathleen, As a teacher you've seen the kids that are invisible to the politicians, who own nice homes, with computers and internet access and lots of books for their own children. We have years worth of studies that show how libraries can level the playing field for these less-advantaged students (and inexpensively, too) but lots of people just cannot see outside their own nice, suburban bubbles.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't get me going about testing :(
Hi Jim, I'll have to dig up some of the return on investment studies of libraries. Their ROI numbers are very good! Sounds like your town values its libraries, which I take as a good sign. Also, a real estate agent told me that living near a library is a big selling point and bumps up the value of a home - so at least those inefficient libraries are raising somebody's home value!
ReplyDeleteHi Gloria, it sounds like your libraries have been a good part of your life. I just wish that everyone felt the same way about their libraries that we feel. I feel sorry for people who just don't take advantage of all the libraries can offer them and their families.
ReplyDeleteI owe SO much to libraries. As a writer now. As a kid who loved to read. They've been a critical part of my journey.
ReplyDelete