“The public library makes a proposition that’s still radical: that learning, knowledge and curiosity are for everyone, and that the annals of history, literature, science and art might not be just an indulgence of the privileged, but an entitlement of citizenship.”
by wgbh_boston
26 Comments
Well said.
I wish more organizations stood up like this.
“…an entitlement of citizenship”
Yes. We desperately need well-informed citizens, if we are ever to have an equal and just society.
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For every dollar spent on a library, a community is provided $5 in programming, services, and collections. Libraries help build communities and help people thrive.
I just imagined a time when books were very expensive and a normal person could not afford to have a large personal library and thus less access to knowledge. Public libraries are about equality.
Is this really a “radical” statement? It kind of sounds like a platitude to me, unless you’re talking about places outside of Western society.
The reference books have been removed from our libraries along with the classics. It’s not that there isn’t room, a full third of the shelves are empty. But we have multiple armed guards lurking in three magnificent floors of dilapidated architecture, with not one comfortable reading chair left.
It’s almost like the public should get something in exchange for its taxes.
If there wasn’t a already a public library system in the US you could never create it now. Which is about the most succulent condemnation I can make of this country.
I’d say Andrew Carnegie building a bunch of public libraries is the single best thing an already rich person did for the American people.
When I was broke af back in the day I would always get books from the library.
Bukowski’s poetry and novels helped me understand my emotions and gave purpose to my troubled past.
Hunter S. Thompson’s work showed me how brave and nihilistic journalism could be in the face of corrupt politics.
Poppy z. Brite helped me understand sexuality stuff that was confusing.
Chuck Palahniuk told me dirty stories that made me feel tough.
John Steinbeck showed me feeling tough doesn’t matter, empathy does.
Stephen King told me stories with characters struggling with trauma and addiction and helped me put things away.
Nietzsche’s work made me see the folly of religion. Also, that I need to read more women becausebhe was a jackass about that stuff.
Sylvia Plath made me not want to have children even more that I already did.
I could go on and on. I love the library.
Now attach universal healthcare, housing assistance, and college education to that model and let’s make libraries enormous campuses of opportunity and community well-being.
Oh… it APPEARS to make such a proposition. In fact the best reviewed books, the ones we’re most certain have the highest proportion of truth, aren’t allowed to be collected in libraries. I’m speaking of college textbooks. Publishers have somehow managed to forbid libraries to collect them. I mean, occasionally you’ll find a textbook in a library, but it doesn’t happen very often. And so by default, libraries are full of books that haven’t been carefully checked by experts for accuracy.
If libraries didn’t exist already, can you imagine if someone tried to sell the idea today?
“So let me get this straight, you want us to devote an entire building to books, cds, dvds, games, toys, and learning opportunities for the general public…for free? Please give me a moment to throw my head back and laugh before having you escorted out by security.”
Odd then that so many are privately endowed eh?
Public roads, public education, public libraries, community centres. Even museums are partially or fully (!) funded by the state.
I’ve never met a well adjusted right winger opposed to any of these. It’s not even radical. Stop picking out Twitter schizos (Twitter posts have never represented public sentiment on the left or right) and generalizing half your population based on them.
Also a great place for homeless to congregate
The Internet is a bigger democratization of information than libraries.
Unrestricted access to information promotes education and more often than not a stronger skilled workforce. It’s a win-win-win for all
Radical as in out of the norm? Or as in cartoon dog on a skateboard?
A beautiful sentiment. I love this.
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A local library in may town shut down due to meth residue at dangerous levels throughout the library because of meth heads using the bathroom for smoking meth.
I just don’t think calling that “radical” sounds the way the guardian thinks it sounds. Cuz that’s not radical, that’s basic shit. So depressing that that’s what passes for radical in a liberal’s political imagination.
Plus it’s a great place for the homeless to do drugs and look at porn.