A Thank You Letter to Libraries

“The public library is a center of public happiness first, of public education next.” ― John Cotton Dana, A Library Primer (1903). 

Libraries have been, and will likely always be, a large part of my life.  My library at Holy Name Catholic  School was my first volunteer experience, at the age of 10.   By volunteering in the library, I could come to school early before the other students arrived, and sort and shelve books.  I remember feeling peaceful while my classmates arrived on buses and on foot, filling the grounds outside.  At the first bell, the silence would end, and I would have to go to my classroom.  I started a classroom library in 7th grade, complete with our very own card catalog. 
On weekends, I would go to the Pembroke Public Library, finding a quiet corner usually on the second floor and escape in books, the outside world fading away to barely a hum.  I spent many hours in that Public Library all the way through high school and this was chronicled in my library borrowing, from Little House on the Prairie to Judy Bloome books, teen magazines, and movies.  I absorbed anything by Margaret Atwood or Ernest Hemingway.  

Library of Parliament

At the University of Ottawa, the university library became a place of solitude, sometimes of escape, but always of joy, to explore ideas, learn new things.  It was here I discovered my love for Willa Cather.  I also had the best part-time job ever as a page at Canada's Library of Parliament! Here I explored archives and learned the importance of recording the past to inform current public policy.  I absolutely loved every minute I spent in this library with its three galleries and sub-basements.  The Parliament buildings were completed in 1876 and the library is the only original building remaining after the fire of 1916. The library was connected to the main complex by one corridor and large iron door.  The library clerk at the time closed that door and as a result, fire did not spread into the library.  
During my travels over the years, I have visited incredible libraries like the New York Public Library, Trinity College Library in Dublin (The Book of Kells), Loyola University Library overlooking Lake Michigan and Princeton University Library where Einstein and Woodrow Wilson taught.  But I have also visited smaller libraries while on vacation to access the internet such as Oregon, Illinois (3,721 population) an original Carnegie Library, and the library in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the vacationers on the lake.  

Trinity College Library

During this academic year, I am a Scholar-in-Residence at the Newberry Library in Chicago, a world-round private research library founded in 1877.  Recently, I also published research on how public libraries are supported by philanthropy and facilitated strategic plans for DeKalb, Genoa, St. Charles and now Sandwich, Illinois.  Every time, I have learned just how important libraries are to communities.  They are an anchor of knowledge, a community center, a haven.  They contain endless treasures and possibilities.  
I just started reading "The Library Book" by Susan Orlean about the great fire at the Los Angeles Public Library.  It's about how a library survived and thrived despite losing nearly a half million books in 30 minutes. 
The world needs libraries that open up their doors and collections to everyone of all ages, backgrounds, income, and status, especially those that need libraries the most like the homeless.  Ryan Dowd, Executive Director of Hesed House homeless shelter in Aurora, IL (and NIU MPA and Law School alum) is leading a movement to help libraries serve the homeless in their communities through training and his book "The Librarian's Guide to Homelessness". 
Thank you to the people who dedicate their careers and volunteer time to libraries.  Thank you to the taxpayers who support libraries and the elected officials that support that funding.