Libraries are great to have around. I love being able to read a great book without having to pay for it, or being able to try a movie outside of my normal interests without the financial risk of buying it, or listening to an album in its entirety before making a decision about whether or not I want to buy it for my collection. These are ways in which an individual can benefit from a library, but a library also benefits the community as a whole in its roles as the “great equalizer,” watchdog, and community center.
Ever since the founding of the first American public library in Boston in 1848 libraries have broken down barriers to equality. At first this was simply access to information. The rich could purchase their own books and attend college. This was something the poor didn’t have the means to do, but public libraries broke down this barrier by using community monies to purchase these materials and loan them out free to any community member.
Sometimes the barrier for people was literacy itself. When libraries perceived this need, literacy classes were started in libraries to enable people to read and be more involved in the governing of our nation, the enrichment of self, and the skill building of the workforce.
When urban centers were dealing with a lot of poverty, libraries stepped in to assist citizens with connecting to different social services, helping them not only find what agency could help them, but also assisting with the application process and, in some cases, advocating for the citizen.
More recently libraries have been the source for technological equality. When personal computers started showing up in the houses of the wealthy, giving them an advantage over other Americans, libraries started purchasing computers for the public to use as well as teaching people how to use them. When a connection to the internet was an expensive proposition for most Americans, libraries started using community resources to pay for internet access on all their computers.
The role of the “Great Equalizer” is one that libraries continue to play today. Whenever something new comes along that causes a discrepancy in America between the rich and the poor, libraries step in to try to level the playing field. The more resources a library has the better it is able to do this.
In partnership with a free press, public libraries are the watchdogs of our society. The press keep a vigilante eye on our institutions, reporting what they see both good and bad. This is essential to a democracy. Libraries assist in this by helping to disseminate this information as well as expanding on it.
More recently libraries have become training centers for information literacy. With the advent of the internet and anyone having the ability to publish whatever they would like to a worldwide audience, libraries have sought to help people determine what is fact and what is fiction in what they read online.
The library as a community center is the function we most commonly see on display in libraries — people interacting with other people through face-to-face interactions, recorded media, library programs, and the written word.
When I look out the windows of my office at the library and see two people, who came to the library for different reasons, run into each other and engage in a conversation it makes me happy that I work in an institution that encourages connection to others.
Libraries build community. All residents are welcome. We connect to each other in this space. But we aren’t limited to only our neighbors. We can interact through space and time with others through the collections that the library has. I like to think of the library as a city within a city.
Within our four walls at the Veterans Memorial Library we have 50,000 authors, researchers, and artists that are eager to meet the citizens of Isabella County and share their passions with them.
Corey Friedrich is director of the Chippewa River District Library.