In New York City after the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers, branch and research libraries stayed open, an act that many considered a reassuring symbol to the community. Reading rooms were packed with people in search of not just information, but a sense of community, safety, and some slice of normalcy. In a January 2002 editorial in American Libraries, editor in chief Leonard Kniffel wrote that “knowing that an anti-Muslim backlash was inevitable, [the librarians] created programs to help the patrons of their libraries understand the teachings of Islam, the history of American policy
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