Too Broke for Books?
I heard the Mayor on the radio talking about libraries. He said ‘neighborhoods aren’t about buildings, they’re about people.’
Huh? The least of what describes libraries is buildings. Nearly 400 people didn’t pack the lecture hall of Boston’s main branch library because they want to preserve a building. Is the Mayor implying that one’s neighbors will read to your children? Will they buy you books if you’re laid off? Take in your elderly parents during the day? Let your kids use their computer if you can’t afford one?
How many folks making our budget cuts grew up relying on the library? How many of them realized that after-school, the library is often the only safe place in the world? How many have been old and lonely, and had the library as their sole source of entertainment.
On goodreads.com, a popular book site, they have book ‘giveaways.’ Looking at the five giveaways ending soonest there are almost 5,000 people competing to win copies of these five books.
Seems to me that people want to read and learn.
Are we consigning our struggling neighbors television to meet their social needs? Because your neighbors and my neighbors (and I have terrific neighbors) are not planning to provide pre-school story hours, newspaper reading rooms, or lending libraries.
Books are the backbone of culture. Our elders and poor aren’t walking around with Whispernet, downloading books unto their Kindles.
Is Boston too broke to let our poorer neighbors learn? Because it’s not the rich, or the children of the rich, or the solidly middle-class who need libraries in order to read, use the computer, research, have a warm and safe place to peruse the newspaper, have a destination for the elders, look for a job, meet other toddlers, and explore about the world outside their neighborhood. It’s the poor. It’s the working class. It’s anyone and everyone who struggles.
If neighborhoods are people, than the people need a place to gather. Please protect our libraries.
Huh? The least of what describes libraries is buildings. Nearly 400 people didn’t pack the lecture hall of Boston’s main branch library because they want to preserve a building. Is the Mayor implying that one’s neighbors will read to your children? Will they buy you books if you’re laid off? Take in your elderly parents during the day? Let your kids use their computer if you can’t afford one?
How many folks making our budget cuts grew up relying on the library? How many of them realized that after-school, the library is often the only safe place in the world? How many have been old and lonely, and had the library as their sole source of entertainment.
On goodreads.com, a popular book site, they have book ‘giveaways.’ Looking at the five giveaways ending soonest there are almost 5,000 people competing to win copies of these five books.
Seems to me that people want to read and learn.
Are we consigning our struggling neighbors television to meet their social needs? Because your neighbors and my neighbors (and I have terrific neighbors) are not planning to provide pre-school story hours, newspaper reading rooms, or lending libraries.
Books are the backbone of culture. Our elders and poor aren’t walking around with Whispernet, downloading books unto their Kindles.
Is Boston too broke to let our poorer neighbors learn? Because it’s not the rich, or the children of the rich, or the solidly middle-class who need libraries in order to read, use the computer, research, have a warm and safe place to peruse the newspaper, have a destination for the elders, look for a job, meet other toddlers, and explore about the world outside their neighborhood. It’s the poor. It’s the working class. It’s anyone and everyone who struggles.
If neighborhoods are people, than the people need a place to gather. Please protect our libraries.
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Thanks for your smart words, Irene. I so agree--I would have been totally lost without a library as a child. Without exaggeration, I think it made the single most difference to my difficult upbringingI'd happily pay a library tax!
And when you visit Saratoga Springs, I would love to give you a tour of our library!
I would love that! I want to get to Saratoga Springs (maybe I can do a reading at your library sometime--I go to the Hudson Valley often.)
One of my most memorable moments in life was receiving a library card at age seven (this is really aging me)! Wow, this little card gave me access to the world. Back then the cards were made of little more than construction paper. My worst moment at the library: I took out three books, read them, and returned them the next day to check out three more. The librarian accused me of not reading them, and would not let me check out books for a week...it was a very long week.
Back to the present, I am passionate about reading good books, and I love to pass them on after I read them. So I may have a library listed, but it is mainly books I have read.
Randy, right now I have a stack of 13 Library books in my home. I hope I am able to finish all of them before they are due. If not, I will re-reserve the unread ones.
We have one of the best libraries (in my opinion), in the country. A library tax is included in our school/property taxes, but I think it is a small price to pay for what we receive in return. I have already e-mailed my representatives opposing the proposed cuts for NY libraries. As a youngster, I cannot imagine where else I would have had access to books, if it were not for our library.