Magical places

Libraries. Really! Our public libraries are on the chopping block? Is this what we’ve come to, putting our cultural assets and social institutions on the market? What the H E double late fines is this scroogey-crap all about? When did Prince Edward County become Toronto? When did Mayor Rob Ford become a mentor for this community?

Here’s the way I see it and, maybe you see it this way, too. When men and women sitting in power seats gather round the dumpster to talk about what goes into the landfill next, they always, always turn to a community’s cultural assets and social institutions as if the public wouldn’t notice or care.

I don’t know about you but, when I was a kid, the walk from our school to the public library, once each week, was more exciting to me than a long recess of double-dutch. The trip to the Weston Public Library was a trip to ancient Egypt or sledding trip across the Northwest Territories. It was story time or research time for a report. It was a place to do my homework without having my baby sister’s fingerprints in the margins of my scribbler. From the moment I was old enough to read, there was never a time in my life when I didn’t have a library card. In the 1990s when I was working on a graduate program, the Picton Public Library’s inter-branch loan service saved me hundreds of dollars on book purchases while I completed 10 courses in Museum and Canadian Studies.

Our public libraries are centres of discovery and learning. Public libraries are our most enduring public institutions. They have always been the repositories for our history, our language and our culture. Even when staring into the face of the “information highway”—when institutions like libraries were supposed to fail and become irrelevant—libraries adapted and thrived. How many children have had the dreamy pleasure of a trip to the library (or bookmobile— let me not forget the fabulous bookmobiles of old)? How many children sat quietly through a reading of a classic fairy tale or bit their nails as the hero of an adventure story battled evil? Libraries are magical places.

But, all of that aside, in this time of record unemployment, when people are struggling to make ends meet, let’s call an auctioneer and a real estate specialist and get rid of our little satellite library buildings and holdings. The people of Bloomfield, Ameliasburgh and Milford don’t really need a library or library programs. It’s just reasonable to assume those folks can just jump in their car or truck or hire a taxi and ride into Wellington or Picton for library services. And, honestly, how many of those people living outside of Picton or Wellington actually bother with books, anyway. Right?

Our public library and its satellite branches have seen a substantial increase in the use of their services, including access to the Internet, workshops, creative and informative children’s programs, movies and seminars. Public libraries have always been the soft shoulder, to the public, in tough times. Public libraries make a difference in people’s lives. Really, what’s all the fuss about, anyway?

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca