News Flash: We Still Need Public Libraries

I found this through Trina Keith, who is a friend and Tech Services librarian at the New York Academy of Medicine:

U.S. public libraries: We lose them at our peril

By Marilyn Johnson

July 6, 2010

The U.S. is beginning an interesting experiment in democracy: We're cutting public library funds, shrinking our public and school libraries, and in some places, shutting them altogether.

These actions have nothing to do with whether the libraries are any good or whether the staff provides useful service to the community. This country's largest circulating library, in Queens, N.Y., was named the best system in the U.S. last year by Library Journal. Its budget is due to shrink by a third. Los Angeles libraries are being slashed, and beginning this week, the doors will be locked two days a week and at least 100 jobs cut. And until it got a six-month reprieve June 23, Siskiyou County almost became California's only county without a public library. Such cuts and close calls are happening across the country. We won't miss a third of our librarians and branch libraries the way we'd miss a third of our firefighters and firehouses, the rationale goes … but I wonder.

I've spent four years following librarians as they deal with the tremendous increase in information and the many ways we receive it. They've been adapting as capably as any profession, managing our public computers and serving growing numbers of patrons, but it seems that their work has been all but invisible to those in power. I've talked to librarians whose jobs have expanded with the demand for computers and training, and because so many other government services are being cut. The people left in the lurch have looked to the library, where kind, knowledgeable professionals help them navigate the government bureaucracy, apply for benefits, access social services. Public officials will tell you they love libraries and are committed to them; they just don't believe they constitute a "core" service.

I'll tell you what a core service is: teaching kids how to read, how to write, how to do basic research. Getting them hooked on reading while they're young, thereby building a lifelong habit. Showing middle and high school students the difference between a textbook and a history book, or the difference between a "classic comic book" and an actual classic. Showing them that the same story can be told in multiple ways through different media, and what each brings to (or loses in) the translation. Teaching college kids what advanced research is. Giving them ideas of where the useful stuff in academia is to be found. Telling them that there are such things as public databases and instructing them in their use. Letting them know that we are always there to help them if they get stuck. And they will eventually get stuck--everybody does. You could conceivably close the public schools and keep the libraries and these kids of all ages would still get quality educations. Reading does that. (Not that closing all the public schools would be a good thing by any means.)

Read the entire article here. Enjoy!