Library Love
As much as I love writing I am a huge fan of reading too. My big sister who was obsessed with reading took me to the library as a toddler and introduced me to the world of Miffy and much more. Throughout my childhood and teen years I was a regular library goer, I worked out last night that at my peak I must have been reading about two books a week during my summer holidays. The library was also about community and was one of the first places you could get on the internet, and for free!
These days I work in an academic library. Not where I’d ever though I’d end up, but a fitting place for someone whose world revolves around reading and writing.
This week whilst catching up on the wonderful and funny blog Awful Library Books, I was distressed to hear that Philadelphia’s Free State Libraries will be closing on the 2nd October 2009. That is all the public libraries in the entire city. It’s approximately the equivalent of the population of Birmingham AND Manchester not having access to public library services.
It’s not just the physical buildings and all the books that will be unavailable, but the community services too. The schemes for children, teens, adults, job seekers and pensioners will all be discontinued. From what I can gather it’s due to a lack of state legislature passing the funding required to run facilities and pay staff. I just can’t imagine, even with the current state of the world economy, that a US state can let this happen. All the resources will go to waste at a time when people need access to them more than ever.
When I heard about it I was shocked. I could never imagine that happening in the UK. If tomorrow it was announced all public libraries in County Durham were to shut there would be outrage. In fact despite the state of the economy our government is continuing to put money into efforts to improve literacy such as Reading for Life.
I really hope they find a solution to the problem in Philadelphia. There are already too many countries in this world with communities who don’t have access to the resources and services even the simplest library can provide. There are charities trying to help improve access to books (e.g. The Book Bus). Surely the United States can’t allow a community of millions to lose access to such a precious resource, and one that we shouldn’t take for granted.
Thanks to The Nation for the image from Durham Library, Philadelphia
Update 18/09/09: The state budget has been passed and the libraries will not close. That’s great, but why did it ever get to the stage where closure was a real threat? Whether it was for PR or just bad politics it should have never happened. And if the politicians were ‘crying wolf’ I think they need to tread very carefully with whatever moves they make next.
I spent the vast majority of my childhood reading, I’m not sure whether any of my best friends actually exist, they are all fictional! At my peak I was reading 6 books over a weekend, I had no life. Gutted about the Philadelphia thing, I see having access to books as a basic need of life.
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