You may not have noticed that Monday was the kick off for National Library Week. Yesterday was a rather big day, after all. A shoutout to the gentleman in Clarkville who let us all piggyback on his live telescope feed of the eclipse. I won’t name him here because I didn’t ask his permission but I can’t express my gratitude enough. I hadn’t really jumped on the whole eclipse bandwagon until that very moment.
It was glorious, and made even more meaningful to me by the simple gesture of a member of the community I’ll probably never meet.
Back to libraries. My heart went out the the library worker who had to turn someone down for eclipse glasses, right before I got to the front of the line to check out my book, even though signs were posted at the entrance and all around the desk that they were out.
When I said that I felt for her, being inundated with requests, she smiled a bit and said, “It’s just so rare that we ever have to say no to anybody.”
So I’m going to backtrack to talk about Monday’s National Library Week theme because I think it’s extremely important.
Monday was Right to Read Day. Why is that so important?
2023 was a tumultuous year for libraries. Book bans dominated headlines as well as city council and school board meetings, threatening the access of information to readers of all ages and the livelihoods and safety of library workers across the country. - - American Library Association
Here in Howard County, pro-censorship harassment has targeted the school system and questioned the professional integrity of media specialists and classroom teachers.
You can learn more about censorship in the United States by reading American Library Association's 2024 State of America's Libraries Report: Libraries Take Action! The State of America’s Libraries, 2024. The report addresses more than censorship. Here’s what you’ll find:
To sum it all up:
Despite these upheavals, libraries took action, continuing to provide critical services to their communities and develop truly innovative programs along the way. - - ALA
As someone who was raised with a great respect for libraries and who was taught to love learning by parents who had a high regard for intellectual freedom, I find the loud and destructive voices of censorship alarming. Cultivating ignorance and attempting to exert tight control over what may be learned do not make the world safer and more wholesome. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This message is insidious and ultimately poses a threat to our educational institutions and also to our democracy as a whole.
A few years back my library branch was renovated. The updates are beautiful and make the library environment even more functional for the community. But there’s one thing I miss. On the wall behind the circulation desk there used to be a quote by the writer Kurt Vonnegut. I think it was this one.
You must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own.
I don’t know why it was removed but I think that decision was a mistake. Vonnegut’s message will never go out of style. It’s the first thing we should be hanging on the wall as soon as the paint is dry. Vonnegut understood the important role of libraries in supporting a functional democracy.
And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.
So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country, 2005
Visit your library this week. Learn something new about what is going on there. Share your esteem and gratitude for your local libraries with your children, your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers. Great libraries are an integral part of thriving communities. Without community support - - and I mean ardent, vocal support - - we may lose this valuable partner that supports us in our learning and in our daily lives.
In honor of National Library Week, Howard County Library System is holding a contest to design images for new library cards. The theme says it all:
The library is your place to learn, connect, and grow.
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