This week is National Library Week, a time when we (mostly library workers and a small subset of library enthusiasts) reflect on the social importance of libraries and library services and pause to appreciate library workers (today is actually National Library Workers Day–shout out to all of my colleagues working from home to support City Tech students). Some of you might think it’s odd to celebrate libraries during a moment when a public health crisis has prompted most libraries to close their doors and cancel face-to-face programs. Or perhaps, in the wake of this crisis, some of you have a new appreciation for libraries (and other spaces that we take for granted, like public parks or schools) which play an important role in connecting people and providing free spaces to gather and learn.
Research in a Time of Crisis
Of course, libraries are more than just spaces. And most librarians are celebrating this National Library Week by promoting the important, mostly invisible labor that librarians are doing right now from their homes to connect library patrons with research, provide virtual information literacy instruction, create new digital resources, and support teachers and students when they need it most. The City Tech Library is doing all of these things and, as the person who coordinates outreach for the library, I’ve never been so busy.
The COVID 19 crisis has also starkly demonstrated that we can’t protect public health without quality information and we can’t develop new treatment protocols and a vaccine for this virus without advancements in medical research. The role that libraries play in providing access to scientific research and helping people evaluate information has never seemed more important.
The Social Value of Libraries
But still, I don’t feel much like celebrating. People are sick and dying. As I write this from my apartment in Brooklyn, I hear the constant high-pitched hum of sirens wailing in the background. And, since the onset of this crisis, many libraries across the country have faced (and still face) political pressure to remain open even as it is clear that it isn’t safe for workers, or students, or the public to gather. Some people think the libraries should stay open because it has become more apparent than ever that a lot of people really need the library.
People need libraries because not everyone is working from home right now on a laptop with high-speed internet connection. People need the library because they don’t have access to wifi or technology. People need the library because they can’t afford textbooks. People need the library because they just got laid off and need a computer to file for unemployment or to search for a new job. People need a librarian to help them access and understand the new medical research being published about the COVID crisis. People need access to the computer literacy and ESL courses their public library usually offers. People who don’t have secure housing need a safe place to go during the day. People who live in crowded apartments need a quiet place to work or study. In the past 30 years, as income inequality has grown, municipal services have been cut, and public spaces have become privatized, libraries have become much more than libraries.
Whether or not libraries should provide all of these social services is debatable. What is clear is that, in many places, they do. Public libraries are one of the last places in America where everyone is welcome and no-one is expected to buy anything. They are truly common spaces. Spaces where we can just be. Spaces to go for inspiration or to duck out of the rain. Spaces to be alone, among others. But libraries (public and university libraries alike), for all of the resources they provide and the essential services they have absorbed, are underfunded. Many of them are understaffed and (when they’re open) overcrowded. The work that librarians do is often undervalued or misunderstood.
Perhaps people will see libraries differently after this crisis. Perhaps after the public threat of COVID is over, civic priorities will shift and we’ll invest more in education and research and public spaces. But I worry because collective memory is fleeting and an economic recession is on the horizon.
So during this National Library Week, I hope to shine a small spotlight on the large library shaped void that exists in all of our communities right now. And hope it might serve as a beacon, and if needed, an SOS.
A Little History
The first National Library Week was celebrated back in 1957 and commemorated a time when public officials worried that with the increasing ubiquity of television and radio in American households, people would stop reading. In March of 1958, President Eisenhower signed Proclamation 3226, which codified National Library Week as an official celebration and affirmed the role of libraries in “enriching the life of our Nation, by bringing to the people informational, cultural, and recreational materials of all kinds.”
National Library Week was born out of the calls of “numerous national and local organizations” who hoped to focus “public attention on the services and resources of our libraries and their contribution to the civic welfare and cultural advancement of our Nation.” This call is still as relevant as ever even if the precise role that libraries serve has shifted and some of Eisenhower pronouncements seem a little abstract and grandiose.
National Library Week
Now, 62 years after the first National Library Week, I think there’s no better way to commemorate libraries than by recognizing how they are continuing to serve their patrons during this health crisis, perhaps chiefly, by remaining closed in order to prevent the spread of COVID19. This National Library Week, I also want to remember all of the things that I miss about the library and all of the people that the library can’t currently reach.
I recognize that these things might seem antithetical but they are not.
So, from cyber-space and civic ideals, with love and gratitude to library workers, as I write to you (who I miss, whoever you are) from a library shaped void inside of my apartment, happy National Library Week.
