In praise of Public Libraries

Public libraries are the best places in the whole civilized world. You may think I am exaggerating here, but the service they provide is invaluable, and I am very happy to visit public libraries wherever I roam.

Libraries have always been a friendly place to me, where I can find entertainment or do some hard work, or simply spend time. In fact, they served many time as harbor of refuge and nomadic workplace during my travels.

You really enjoy libraries only if you have spare time, a luxury that few people in the world can afford nowadays. For this reason children and kids are natural inhabitants of public libraries, as well as older people.

Public libraries are one of the few last public spaces in this privatized world, where you can walk in even if you have no money, and you are not invited to buy stuff. A wide range of services are available: a collection of media for any use, free access to the internet, toilets, water fountains, comfortable seats and warm/cool space. All for free.

I experienced libraries from different point of views, throughout my life. As a little kid in Limbiate, my hometown in Italy, I was an avid reader of Game books and mystery novels, expecially the Alfred Hitchcock presents series, the one with the three little detectives.

I clearly remember walking to the library every Saturday morning, listening to my walkman, present my unique library card and swap books. I was a better reader then than I am now.

When the wastrel era of adolescence arrived, the library became the perfect spot to meet friends and to squander time. I was quenching my thirst of knowledge wandering around the shelves without a plan, and absorbing what was catching my attention. I have always had this feeling of wonder when facing a wall of books, with my eyes and my legs following the succession of titles.

Few years later, when studying was not optional I joined group of college kids preparing their exams at the library, far away from my room and videogames. The presence of a group of peers with a common destiny reinforced the motivation to study.

Finally I also realized one of my dreams: after being a user for many years I had the opportunity to work for Limbiate’s library, and there it’s where I started to deal directly with users.

Because libraries don’t make distinctions of age, race, mental and physical ability, class or income, the users of a public library constitute a rich and heterogeneous group. And that’s where a good librarian has the most arduous task.

Managing the human relationship in such a diverse environment is no joke. Sometimes I think that the job of a librarian incorporates the one of a social worker, a cop, a psychiatrist, a nurse. He/she is not only a person who knows how to catalog media and knowledge and where to find what you are looking for (an incarnated Google). Librarians also have to deal with the humanity that finds refuge in this last outpost of public space.

Libraries are free public spaces but this doesn’t mean they don’t have rules. The most important rule, which is the fundament of this institution, is to be quiet. I find this truly revolutionary.

You can’t have this in Starbucks or any other secular place. Everywhere else, there’s violent chatter, loud speaking on the phone, blasting music. What’s better than having the right to say <<Shh!>> to people who threaten your concentration and peace?

Beside this very important one every library has its own set of rules, which are often very different. I spent some time online reading some of the rules and regulations of different libraries. There are pretty common ones but also some funny rules.

Sleeping is usually forbidden and enforced by staff,as I witnessed in Savannah, GA at the local library. Now I consider myself lucky that nobody kicked me out for sleeping with my head on a book more than once during my study time. It probably makes a difference if you are holding a book or a newspaper, or if you simply crashing in an armchair. In Boulder, CO Public Libraries, it is forbidden to “down, doze or sleep in any library facility except this rule shall not apply to children“.

Rules of Common Decency are requested to all visitors everywhere but some libraries gets very detailed as it happens in New York Public Library “you must wear clothing and shoes in the Library, and your body odor must not be so offensive that it disturbs others.”

Lakewood Public Library, OH prohibits “loitering in the Library without making use of its materials is not acceptable. Aimless wandering through the building or anywhere on the grounds is likewise prohibited“. I am guilty of this one because I wandered too without making use of the materials, but maybe I looked like I was in search of a book.

There are so many funny rules out there, if you want to read some more here is a link.

Today, in the era of Internet and E-books, public libraries are facing difficult times, as some people may think they are becoming obsolete. However there is a great difference between server stored digital media knowledge and libraries.

A library exists inside a physical building, often a fine example of architecture. It has bones and muscles, but it also has heart and blood, the real people that keep alive this important institution. We surely can keep studying and reading books even without libraries, using screens instead of book pages. But we would be terribly alone, isolated and lost in a digital void.

That’s why, whenever I have a chance, I go to public libraries. They serve me well and they are beautiful places.

We all should support them.