NorthumberlandToday.com: Local libraries can be the hub of the community

May 9, 2016

“Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.” — Anne Herbert

In our increasingly online world, where books seem to recede in importance behind streaming videos, clips viewable on the Internet, blogs and ebooks, it might seem that the small community library branch has become a quaint remnant of the past, an expensive backwater soon to be rightly eliminated in the interests of efficiency. Dusty tomes and stale air and “Shhhh!”...so yesteryear.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Sometimes closing libraries is seen as fiscal responsibility or cutting a frill no longer vitally necessary. Cash-strapped administrations (such as, currently, the provincial government of Newfoundland) may see closing small rural branches and “consolidating” as a relatively painless way of achieving savings. This is almost always a short sighted mistake.

As anyone who has needed to fill out a form to access government services that are in many cases legally required or literally a matter of personal health and safety has discovered, the public library has become our shared public window into the world, our access point to the Internet. Where rural topography and infrastructure can make connecting at practical speeds impossible at your own rural home, the library is there for you.

In a time when the local barber shop has largely vanished and the daily community crossroads it provided gone with it, and churches have closed as congregations have aged and dwindled into the inability to pay for the upkeep of the church, the small local library branch is increasingly the focus and hub of rural communities. It is the place where people meet and greet, where they browse community notices and pamphlets to keep abreast of what’s going on in the neighbourhood, and where they can look at new fiction, television shows, and movies to decide if such things will be to their tastes or ideal for friends and family members. Via the Internet, the library brings news where newspapers are no longer available in boxes or stores on every corner and local coverage is fading.

Moreover, without a local library, many rural communities would be without a building that can be turned into a command post or makeshift medical care centre during an emergency. In our country, with its long cold winters and frequent wet weather, there would be no gathering place for cultural events, such as author visits or school classes attending theatrical productions or travelling exhibitions. At the level of our most basic needs, a library is a public washroom, a place to warm up in frigid weather and a place to cool down in stifling heatwaves. It is a living room with comfortable seating and an uncluttered desk for those who lack such things. It is a place to study for the learner of any age, and a place for strangers or wayfarers unfamiliar with an area to meet, or use as a reference point for navigation.

Our library is the physical, handy, daily-useful way in which we collectively help each other, band together as a community, and meet on neutral ground. It is the friendly face of what we do for each other.

A face that in our increasingly hectic lives is more vitally necessary than ever. A face that in the best cases a community can love and cherish and be proud of; something we do not to make a profit or get ahead of others but for the good of all.

A good way to judge the kindness and farsightedness of any community is to look at its local library.

Source: NorthumberlandToday.com

[This report from the Ontario government makes for an interesting read on the role of community hubs in the province. If your interests lay more with the role of libraries as community hubs, then Todd Kyle's "Public Libraries: The Original Community Hubs" may be of interest. Mr. Kyle was a librarian with the  Mississauga Library.--Transcriber] ]