Civil Unrest: Public Libraries Need Our Help More Than Ever

In his inaugural address, President Obama called on Americans to confront “our collective failure to make hard choices.” Well, I’ve got a hard choice I’d like Americans to make: let’s lobby harder for increased funding for our public libraries.

The fact that public library usage is way up during this time of economic turmoil is hardly a secret. In fact, newspapers have reported skyrocketing circulation, crowded facilities, and overworked job-and-career-information staff.

Trust me, I’m not complaining about all of the good press. But two important points often get overlooked in these stories. One is that many public library budgets are tanking at a time when the need for libraries is greatest. The other is the vital role these libraries play in the lives of families and young people—and not just in the lives of unemployed adults.

Faced with declining budgets, public libraries across the country are beginning to retrench. There are hiring freezes. Materials budgets are being slashed. Sunday hours—a time when libraries are packed with families—are being eliminated. Many libraries, especially those in large cities, are planning to drastically reduce their hours, close branches, and lay off staff.

Closing neighborhood branches hurts everyone, but it punishes children and teens the most. They’re the ones who need the easy proximity to a physical library and all the opportunities it offers: homework help and graphic novels, broadband access and book discussion groups, lap-sit programs and gaming nights. To better articulate how indispensable both public and school libraries are in the lives of children and teens, visit Add It Up, a wonderful new Web site created by the American Library Association (ALA) and its three youth divisions.

Help for libraries may come from the federal government’s impending economic stimulus package. School libraries are eligible for K–12 Repair and Modernization funding (as are academic libraries in the higher-education version of the bill). But it’s not guaranteed that these funds will reach the nation’s 15,000-plus public libraries. According to ALA’s Washington Office, public libraries “should benefit” from several funding streams, most notably those earmarked to improve public infrastructure, but we will have to keep lobbying lawmakers to make sure it happens.

The trouble is that many more powerful groups, including the civil engineering sector, are already busy lobbying Congress. That’s why Jeffrey Scherer, a prominent library architect and the board chair of the not-for-profit Libraries of the Future, wants public libraries to be explicitly mentioned in our nation’s economic recovery plan.

“In my library community-planning work in New Orleans, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Kentucky,” says Scherer, “the way the stimulus funding is allocated, it will have no direct impact on the thousands of people who have no access to information other than in the public library.”

Whatever the stimulus package’s final language, we must be vigilant in making sure that federal funds reach our local public libraries. While we may not be building bridges and tunnels, our facilities and services are no less important. The central mission of the public library—to create an informed citizenry—remains one of our country’s loftiest ideals. As our 44th president reminded us on January 20, “Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.”