The days of a dusty library basement filled with colorful book covers with lovable characters are far behind us. For many, it’s been years since we’ve stepped into a public library, much less the children’s section. Public libraries have been subjected to loss of funding, loss of public interest and loss of motivated individuals necessary to revitalize their interiors. While public libraries have lost a lot, they have not lost clientele, nor have they lost their vast resources.
Some libraries are growing to offer new materials to a technological world. Millennials are beginning to step out to shape the world around them, and libraries are included. Apps like Overdrive allow people to use their library card from the comfort of their home to check-out e-books and read articles on library databases. A new generation of parents are bringing their children to morning story-times and evening book signings. Book clubs are taking place on Facebook and Skype, instead of tiny storage rooms. Gaming centers with Minecraft, computers for e-mail and social media, printers for DIY tax returns and display cases featuring artifacts of technology-past are changing the way we look at libraries.
And that’s all okay.
A new technological age leads us to innovation and changing the way things have always been done. If libraries were not keeping up with the times, we would have abandoned them entirely by now. Despite all the great work being done in them, public libraries across the country are closing due to their lack of volunteers and loss of state and local funding.
Why?
Libraries are closing because of a loss of funding, not a lack of innovation or loss of clients to serve. One in four households in the United States today do not have a computer with Internet access. Since young students are incapable of purchasing computers and Internet connections for their homes, they are also unlikely to be able to subscribe to academic journals or purchase access to primary-source documents. This is one of the major reasons that libraries must continue to exist. People, young and old, have a natural curiosity that libraries help to remedy with their endless databases filled with scholarly articles and old newspapers.
Libraries fill other functions in a community too. They offer after-school programs and summer-reading programs for at-risk youth. Libraries around the country offer resume-writing labs, FAFSA tutorials, book clubs, read-aloud programs for children, and much more. People are able to use their computers for job-searches, to make vacation plans and learn about their communities.
The endless rows of books, magazines, journals and newspapers night not be the main attraction like they were when we were obsessed with Nancy Drew and Highlights Magazine, but they are still there, and still need our help. Without these resources poverty-stricken children and adults would not have the escape into a new world of an exciting story, we would not be able to offer a world of information to inquiring minds, and we would not have access to reputable answers.
Get involved.
