[On May
23rd, 1895, the project which would become the New York Public Library was launched. So for
the 125th anniversary, I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of libraries and
library contexts, leading up to a special post on the NYPL!]
On why it’s hard
to criticize a recent bibliographic trend, and one way I would nonetheless.
As far as my
research on the intertubes reveals (always a foolproof method of information
gathering, of course), no one (not even the official Little Free Library website) seems to
know exactly when this trend began. I would say it was sometime in the last
decade or so, anyway, that I started to notice these standing boxes of books
springing up around various neighborhoods and communities, always with the
message that the books were free to take but that the borrower should ideally
leave a book of their own to replace the one that they were taking. To say that
the concept has caught on would be to significantly understate the case: if we
go by the official website’s
map (which only highlights those little free libraries that have been formally
registered by the “stewards” who maintain them, so likely leaves out many more
boxes still), there are now thousands upon thousands of these little free
libraries around the U.S. and the world.
I’m a big fan of
books (perhaps the least surprising clause I’ve ever written in this space),
and so of course I like any concept which gets more books out into our communities
and into more readers’ hands. Moreover, the official Little Free Library
mission statement emphasizes goals of access and equity, of helping provide
opportunities for kids (in particular) and families that might have a more
difficult time getting their hands on books to do so, free of charge and 24/7. Of
course public libraries (on which more in a moment) can offer similar such
opportunities, but not with those unlimited hours of access, and I know that
libraries in disadvantaged communities can be frustratingly underfunded (and
likely will be even more so after this pandemic) and so can become less available
to their residents than would be ideal. Little Free Libraries can thus be seen
as complementary to public libraries, advancing the same basic goal and doing
so in ways that might fill in gaps or address limitations of public libraries
in our 21st century world.
And yet (ah, how
many paragraphs on this blog have I started with that phrase!). As I highlighted
a bit in yesterday’s post, public libraries offer communal opportunities and
benefits that go far beyond the opportunity for individuals and families to borrow
books (fundamental as that will always be to a library’s mission). And they can
likewise do so in particular and crucial ways for disadvantaged communities—offering
free
and accessible space for those who need somewhere to go, offering computers
and internet access for those who don’t have them otherwise, providing additional
programs and materials that can help
with job interviews, and many more such offerings and opportunities. None
of those are things that Little Free Libraries can offer, which isn’t in and of
itself a criticism of them. But again, we’re in an era when public libraries
are often underfunded and always (from what I can tell) battling to receive the
support they need—and it seems to me that any popular, alternative form of
book-borrowing risks making it seem that public libraries are less necessary or
important. So at the very least, I would want us all to remember all the ways
that public libraries remain vital, and that Little Free Libraries cannot and
will not take their place.
Last library
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Thoughts on
this post, or other libraries you’d highlight/celebrate?
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