Libraries: The Underused Resource

Recently, I got the urge to visit my local library.  Now, I am advantaged in that the central office of the Orange County Public Library is like 15 minutes from my apartment, but I have to say that I am shocked that such a great resource goes so underutilized.  Judging by what I saw yesterday (and granted that it was at 7pm) it is mostly used by the local homeless population, which is a shame.  Now, I am not condemning anyone that hasn’t visited their local library since highschool, as I think that last night was the first time that I had, but I think that everyone should visit their library.

Of course they have research material there.  That is basically what I thought of when I thought of the library.  Given my current state in life and the availability of information on the internet, I had more or less written off libraries as relics of the past, with little use outside of an academic environment.  I was wrong.  I’m used to personally owning media, whether it is buying books, movie, music, or whatnot.  I don’t know if it is a conditioned thing or a true desire for instant access.  What I have come to realize is that I am pretty patient when it comes to media.  I don’t have to be the first to experience something just as it comes out, and with that being the case, it makes sense for me to access it through the library.

The second thing that struck me was that if not for marketing, Blockbuster should be out of business.  Our local library had as least the amount of stock (and in many cases as many copies) of DVDs as my local Blockbuster.  It seems amazing that someone can charge as much as they do with major limits on how many items I can rent (ha!) when I can just walk into my local library and borrow them for free (other than the taxes that I pay).

If I didn’t know that libraries were an established institution, and someone just told me  about the concept, I would think that it would never fly.  “Wait, so we’ll have this repository or books, music, movies, etc., that anyone can access, and they don’t have to pay for as long as they return it, and to top it off they will even ship it to you for free?  Are you crazy?  The RIAA/MPAA/Writer’s Guild will shut down anyone that tries such a thing!  They’ll have lawyers on their grandchildren’s cases.  You’re dreaming.”

When I went to the Library of Congress, I was felt almost overwhelmed by the place.  It is a temple to Minerva (knowledge).  Within those walls I felt that the best parts of the human experience were housed.  Now that I have thought about it more, even the most meger of local library is even more magnificent in that it is accessible to the public.  While we are there, we can set aside our capitolistic assumptions of the consumption of media and experience it as a community. 

That is what a library truely is: community.  I saw it in the programs for classes and clubs on the walls, in the meeting rooms and small places where people were gathered, in the helpful librarians who seemed just as eger to help the guy with all of his posessions on his back in a garbage bag as they were to me.  It is a hub of the community, even if it is largely forgotten. 

I’ve often lamented that it is difficult to connect to the community if you do not worship in a church, synagog, temple, mosk, or whatever; that there was not a central social institution that could tie people together.  I was wrong.  Our libraries are our secular temples, and all are welcome.

Can I get an amen?