There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration. ~Andrew Carnegie
During my busy working years, we only had the Sunday paper delivered. Saturday was the catch up day – laundry, cleaning the house, and shopping. Now, I savor Saturday mornings. We've added Saturday delivery and Will delivers the paper to me in bed, along with a cup of coffee and a kiss. He heads downstairs to read the sports section. Both of us enjoy our routine and solitude in starting the weekend.
I read slowly and usually, it's a peaceful time. No super news – a bit of a rehash of what's been on the TV news all week, plus more local news and views. Even the reports on the declining economy and the war seem a little more distant when viewed only in print, still upsetting but somehow, less so with a only through the eyes look, without the sound effects of the screen.
This Saturday, however, on the New Jersey page in the Atlantic City Press, this headline blared without any need for TV backup.
Camden library, running out of funds, prepares to close.
Carnegie Library, Camden, circa 1914
Being a frequent library patron, I began to read, initially thinking this must be a closing of one branch, still tragic, but perhaps it's a branch seldom used. Sadly, that isn't the case. Instead, Camden, one of our nation's poorest cities, is going to close all its libraries by the end of the year because funding has been slashed so deeply it cannot afford to keep operating.
This requires more attention than my usual Saturday morning inertia. So, I go to the computer to learn more. What I found made the headline and article hit even harder.
- I learned that less than one third of Camden residents have high-speed Internet. Adults use the libraries to go online and look for jobs.
- Children depend on the library to access schoolwork research, attend book reading, and learn to play chess, a unique part of that sytstem's offerings.
- The homeless seek its respite during extreme weather and it can provide a refuge for those who don't have air conditioning during extreme heat conditions
- By closing all branches, the more than 150,000 annual visits to a library will no longer be possible.
To read more about other libraries in trouble, go to the NJLA or to the New Jersey Save My Library website
A few quotes on the value of libraries:
What is more important in a library than anything else - than everything else - is the fact that it exists. ~Archibald MacLeish, "The Premise of Meaning," American Scholar, 5 June 1972
Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest. ~Lady Bird Johnson
We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth. ~John Lubbock
A great library contains the diary of the human race. ~George Mercer Dawson
I love the place; the magnificent books; I require books as I require air. ~Sholem Asch
The richest person in the world - in fact all the riches in the world - couldn't provide you with anything like the endless, incredible loot available at your local library. ~Malcolm Forbes
...the world is before me - a library open to all - from which poverty of purse cannot exclude me - in which the meanest and most paltry volume is sure to furnish something to amuse, if not to instruct and improve. ~Joseph Howe, 1824
A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas - a place where history comes to life. ~Norman Cousins
Nutrimentum spiritus (food for the soul). ~Berlin Royal Library, inscription
And a final thought...
I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries. ~Carl Sagan, Cosmos
