Are libraries still relevant today? One thing I have been asked over and over since beginning my work in the library is, “Does anyone still use the library?” Personally, I always view this question as an opportunity to proselytize about the uses and functions of the modern library. Libraries, like society itself, are undergoing a technological revolution. Libraries are becoming more things to more people as they are enhancing their technological offerings and innovations. The modern library is becoming more technologically enhanced and savvy. It is becoming more involved in and welcoming to the community.
Children’s book author Chris Riddell said about libraries, “if nurtured by government, they have the ability to transform lives. We must all raise our voices to defend them.” The public library has always been the most democratic of institutions with everyone on the same level. One can acquire the finest education imaginable with time and a library card. Digitization has certainly changed things but the obituaries written for books and for the libraries that house them are, to paraphrase Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated.
In fact, sales of physical books is back on the rise after the first blush of digital infatuation faded. That can only be good for libraries as people remember how much better it is to actually hold a book in their hands. As keepers of these churches of information, we cannot just be content with being a warehouse for books. We must realize though that it will never go back to how it was with the library being the only way to access certain information. Now that vast swaths of information can be accessed through any number of hand-held devices, we must rediscover or even reinvent things that make the library special.
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Information availability is growing exponentially. However, patrons are not able to keep up with this explosion of information and they need help finding the things that are pertinent to them among the flotsam and jetsam of the internet. The digital revolution has not kept people from the library. In contrast, it has brought new people through the doors looking for help navigating the changing world; especially in poor, rural areas where electronic access to information may be prohibitively expensive, or completely unavailable to some sectors of the population.
Libraries have the greatest impact on and give the most assistance to the poverty stricken of our communities. We give those locked in poverty access to the internet, access to books, access to the world! We give them ways to apply for jobs in the digital age when companies give people a website address when they walk through the door looking for employment. We give them ways to speak to or write to distant friends and family. Multiple studies have shown that access to books at an early age is a predictor of later educational and life success. Libraries aren’t part of the problem, but the modern library should seek out ways to become part of the solution. We must find new and better ways to get parents and therefore their children through the doors and getting books into their hands.
Andrew Carnegie, who truly earned the moniker, the patron saint of libraries, dreamed of libraries in every town. He worked to make that dream a reality. We should do all that we can to keep that dream alive moving forward in the twenty-first century. The role of the library must evolve along with the digital evolution. Libraries can become cultural hubs of their communities, not just a place to read books, but a place to discuss them and a place for people to come together. The digital age makes it easy for people to become isolated, but there is still that desire for human interaction, that desire for connection, for congregation.
The library can still be the means by which all people, but especially the poor, gain access to knowledge and to the power that goes with it when the rest of public life seems to be geared toward keeping them from gaining that access. Society seems to be telling the poor that they do not have the right to access knowledge and wisdom. They do this through cuts to education and other social programs. The library seems to be the last institution that promotes equal access to all people. This statement from the American Library Association is one of the most meaningful to me: ALA actively advocates and educates in defense of intellectual freedom—the rights of library users to read, seek information, and speak freely as guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Intellectual freedom is a core value of the library profession, and a basic right in our democratic society. A publicly supported library provides free, equitable, and confidential access to information for all people of its community. The good news is that the public library is not dying. It is alive and well. According to the Pew Research center, Millennials use the library even more than Baby Boomers do. ARGH – I can’t figure out how to wrap this thing up!
