In its latest issue, the New York Review of Books features a defense of the public library by Sue Halpern. As NPQ has regularly noted, the demise of the library has been regularly predicted, and yet its importance has instead increased. Those expecting to see decline focused on the rise of electronic alternatives to books. Of course, libraries have become repositories of electronic materials as well. But that is not the only reason why libraries remain critical. Rather, the reason for the public library’s continuing importance is both simple and profound: It is an essential public space in a world where the existence of public space is increasingly rare.
Take, for instance, Ferguson, Missouri. In the wake of the police shooting of Michael Brown, NPQ noted that it was the “library that, during the 100-plus consecutive days of community protests that followed the shooting, stayed open.” As Constance Rush, director of advocacy at the Deaconess Foundation, would note years later, it was the library that received “the community when schools and businesses and governmental agencies closed their doors.” It was the library that served as an “anchor for democracy during that time.” It was the library, Rush added, where “many school teachers came to teach up to 200 children who were at the library” when schools had been shut down.
A year later, following the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody in Baltimore, once again, “Despite Maryland being in a state of emergency, the city’s public schools being closed, and the cancellation of several recent Orioles games, all branches of Baltimore’s public libraries [maintained] regular hours and [remained] fully staffed.”
[For more on this story by STEVE DUBB, go to https://nonprofitquarterly.org...ly-privatized-world/]
Comments (0)