I love libraries. Sure, that’s not a tough guess. Hopefully I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t! I’ve been a librarian for more than 20 years; and while every day has not been perfect, and there is room for improvement always – I think libraries have the potential to be the most wonderful organizations. We can do fantastic things for the communities we serve. I’m still kind of amazed about the possibilities for libraries.

We are at a strange point in the timeline: things are overall better, safer, and wealthier than any other time in human history. But, people keep telling us how terrible everything is around us. It isn’t true. I love the idea that libraries can be part of the process to make everyone remember what’s important: we are all pretty good people, and we all basically want the same good things for everyone.

So this was a good article to read! We have an excerpt below, and you can read the whole thing here:

Libraries Can Unite a Lonely, Divided Nation

The time has come for a “Great Reknitting” across America. The country’s most egalitarian institutions — its public libraries — are a crucial place to start.

“To recover from this epidemic of isolation, America needs to reknit its frayed social fabric. Many institutions can play a role in this “Great Reknitting,” from schools and churches to businesses and voluntary associations. But there’s one institution that has long bolstered communities in an open and democratic way: America’s libraries. As the industrialist and great patron of public libraries Andrew Carnegie famously put it more than a century ago, “A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never-failing spring in the desert.” His words ring true today.

Libraries are so much more than storehouses for books. They are crucial pieces of social infrastructure. When we talk about infrastructure, we typically mean the built structures and utilities — like roads, bridges, subways and sewer systems — that underpin our communities. Social infrastructure, as the sociologist Eric Klinenberg defines it, is the kind of infrastructure that facilitates human connections, interaction and civic engagement — places like parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, museums — and, of course, libraries.

“More than this, libraries provide services and connective fiber to a wide range of people of across genders, races, ages and income levels, housed and unhoused alike. One can sit quietly in a corner and read a book or a magazine, but libraries offer so much more — the chance to interact with someone from outside your social bubble, take in a controversial exhibit that makes you think, or join a public meeting. What other institution can offer storytime for children, entrepreneurial services and financial literacy for adults, programs ranging from author talks to musical acts, and a place to work remotely or get on a Zoom call with people from across the world?

“As Albert Einstein is reported to have said, “The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.” Those words ring ever truer today.”

You can read the whole thing here!