Libraries are under assault.
Ideologues—concerned that libraries might contain material they personally object to—are defunding them to protect people from knowledge. Political opportunists—eager to score points with constituents who aren’t exactly big book readers—are threatening librarians with fines and even jail time for checking out or even showing material that some may find offensive.
The threats go beyond ideology. Elected officials—convinced that the Internet will somehow replace the curated, organized, and staffed libraries—are cutting funding just as patrons return as the worst of the pandemic fades.
Libraries are the embodiment of civic virtue and a symbol of a democratic society’s commitment to the idea that all people should have access to educational material, but they are more. They build stronger communities and give hope to those who need it most.
The people who work there are often the frontline workers who help those most in need in our communities. Library staff offer comfort and warmth to the unhoused, supervision for the kids of single parents, information for job seekers who can’t afford the expenses associated with just looking for a job, computer access and tech support for the elderly, and so much more.
It’s obvious that librarians develop and nurture a love of reading and help us find authors we love and authors we’d never consider without their input., but they have also become essential to the lives of the people in the communities they serve in so many other ways.
As I have spent the past month in a small public library working on writing projects, I’ve watched the way library staff serve the public, the patience they show with occasionally difficult patrons, and the compassion that underlies their treatment of everyone who walks through the doors.
Those who would defund libraries—to save a few bucks in a municipal budget or to score points with angry partisans—need to understand that, if they succeed, they will gut a affordable community resources that more than pay for themselves.
Want to increase violent confrontations between the unhoused and the police? Defund libraries.
Want to make it even more difficult for people to find work? Defund libraries.
Instead of seeing libraries as yet another front in the culture war, can’t we agree that access to material—even some material we might not personally enjoy—provides vital resources we must protect? Can’t we agree that some people want to read a history book by Bill O’Reilly, some want to read books that celebrate their identity, and agree to celebrate that libraries make all of this and so much more freely available?
And if we can’t agree to that, can’t we at least agree that few public institutions are doing as much with so little cost to serve the other needs of people in their communities?
