What’s the best use of the public library?
By By Kelly Nuxoll | 07.21.09
Who knew that the public library was such a hot topic? Yesterday William Wisner’s op-ed, “Restore the Noble Purpose of Libraries,” was one of the most-viewed articles on the website of The Christian Science Monitor.
As a regular library-goer myself, I was struck in particular by one line: “Libraries are currently popular only because everything’s free.”
The observation rang true. At my local library, most of the tables are occupied by men who seem not to have any other place to go. Many appear unwashed and little fed. They thumb through books and doze. Others are well-dressed but restless. I’ve concluded that they’ve been hit by the recession and are out of jobs. They’re on laptops, frantically sifting through Web pages.
Wisner is right that for these gentlemen the library isn’t a place for the patient pursuit of knowledge. It’s a roof or an office until they can afford one of their own.
Wisner’s also right that the library isn’t a quiet place. Mine is full of little kids whose moms and nannies have created an informal play group. If Wisner is irritated that the librarian’s function has become to change the printer pages, at least he’s not in charge of maintaining the changing table in the women’s restroom. “Please dispose of dirty diapers!” one note plaintively reads, no doubt penned by a librarian who can quote the Prologue of “The Canterbury Tales” in Middle English.
Yet, if the library is being used – or abused – by people seeking shelter, community, and the relief of a table and chair without having to pay $3.95 for a latte, then that tells me we desperately need free public spaces. Instead, too often commercial spaces serve as our civic spaces. I’m certainly guilty of taking my young niece and nephew to Wal-Mart to entertain them, and I’m one of legions of the self-employed who use a Starbucks and a Verizon Internet account to do research I might’ve once done in the stacks. However, each of those trips funds companies that don’t have a particular obligation to the common good. At the same time, libraries’ budgets are plummeting.
I don’t think the solution is, as Wisner advises, to return libraries to their more genteel, solemn pasts. Instead, we should preserve and promote libraries in their current incarnation – as one of the few places where an authentically diverse group of people can gather without having to pay anyone anything. The privilege to sit in public at no cost is becoming at least as rare as an early Shakespeare folio.
Of course, if you actually wanted to read the folio in deep silence I don’t know where you’d go. A church, I guess. They’re very quiet and most hardly seem to have anyone in them at all.
Kelly Nuxoll is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.
Comments
2. Meg | 07.23.09
I work in a northeastern US public library. Here’s a little of what I did last night. Helped a local college student find a full current report on a company from one of our databases. Helped a local couple find sources to check on waterproofing companies and home repair books, helped teens look for substitute books for their summer reading list because the waiting list on all titles is over a month long, found early Norse alphabet for someone doing a puzzle, guided people to the ESL services, helped people with Word and with our printing system, found the author of book of essays and title of the book, monitored 20 public access computers in three locations, helped find telephone numbers, gave out Consumer Reports, and put in reserves for several books. My partner at the reference desk was equally busy. We also had two programs running both completely full(1 for families and 1 for teens), and two sessions of computer tutoring. In return we only ask that you return items on time, turn off your cell phones in the library, and help keep us funded.
3. Richard Poisson | 07.23.09
After reading Wisner’s article I wanted to hurl. His concept of a library is so unbelievable, unrealistic and out of touch that I wonder what century he would return libraries to, if he could. Thinking that “Coffee Mondays” is a way to “restore the inherent dignity of the library” would be laughable, if it wasn’t so ridiculous. If that’s all it takes to return libraries to their inherent dignity, then libraries and librarians are really in trouble.
4. R. T. | 07.23.09
My curmudgeonly response is direct:
Libraries should be as they once were: cathedral-like repositories of books, journals, magazines, etc.
For too long, they have been daycare shelters for the homeless, open “classroom” environments for loud discussions, cyber cafes and lounges for people checking out the latest Facebook entries, and playgrounds for unsupervised children.
Well, was that curmudgeonly enough?
5. Robert D. Farwell | 07.23.09
Every library ought to provide the quiet, contemplative space deemed so desirable by William Wisner. We must also acknowledge that our patrons represent a broader swath of humanity than Mr. Wisner describes, and that their needs are not always met by contemplative, academic or scholarly spaces. In our community the library regularly adjusts to new service requirements, some of which are based on the disappearance of social services, public spaces or the absence of alternative sites for getting a passport, using a public Internet connection, attending a program or holding a meeting. Libraries are more than contemplative spaces, or havens for the temporarily adrift. The work of our library and its staff includes identifying and providing services that may not be traditional but are essential to community civic health. To this I add the addendum that, to quote Walt Crawford, “we serve as a safety net for the displaced and a primary place where young people learn to love reading and knowledge.” it is a complex world, and the role of libraries as community resources reflect that environment.
6. Bill Feltner | 07.26.09
Mr. Wisner is absolutely correct when he describes today’s libraries as an experiment of the techno-socio-welfare demeanor. In St. Petersburg, Florida our public libraries have succumbed to a money making mentality having adjusted (read enlarged) the size of its coffee bar and relegated the “quiet space” to the size of a pin head. On any given day children running loose, the homeless sleeping in chairs and washing in the bathrooms, and the ambient conversation of “enlightened patrons” drowns out the deep silence of solitude that used to be the hallmark of any library. What was once a haven of quiet respite from the world has become nothing more than an interior reflection of the faced paced world in which we live. Instead of encouraging people to READ, libraries today are WiFi connected and are aimed at patrons who increasingly have no desire for the written word. Libraries are a safety net today for parentless children, the homeless, and teenagers looking for WiFi connection. The real love of reading is done in a quiet atmosphere where one can reflect and ponder upon the written word. The library was once that building of quiet contemplation where one discovered the wealth of humanity’s knowledge. Today’s libraries hide a raucous world of commercial gadgetry and marketing behind a somber facade of contemplation.
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1. Michel de Greef | 07.21.09
I live in Australia. Here, libraries are great and it is a free service too (communists that we are). Libraries are interconnected across the states and you can order a book from anywhere if it isn’t in the local one. This service is free, You can also request new purchases which are then slotted in with the regular (budgeted) ordering of book. You are notified by e-mail or snail mail whenever the books you requested have arrived. And all this is free for the user. Here most people, unlike, the US, do not dally in the library (some do). You are allowed, again without charges, to borrow up to six books (or records, videos, SVD’s) for a period of 3 weeks which can be extended once in person or by phone. Books can be requested by e-mail, or phone, from a catalog containing all books in all states libraries.
To take advantage of this superior service you only need be a resident of the county, city or village where the library is located. And that gives you access to borrowing rights.
Now, I am thinking what next for intelligent people, or for an intelligent country? Free education, of course. But wait, that makes me a communist (said tongue in cheek), right? And that we are sorely missing. It used to be free. It was a most regressive political act to make education funded, albeit by loans repayable by extra taxes when, and only when, you earn some income. I sincerely hope libraries don’t go the same way and stay free.
Libraries are paid by the local council (city or “county” government) and subsidies from State government. So at the end, like for any other social benefit, taxpayers pay. Who else is there?