My World... And Welcome To It--Part I

The Huffington Post is featuring a Chicago Sun-Times story about the rise of library patronage as a response to economic hard times ("Library Circulation Soars"). This is not news to me, friends....

When I was a kid, I loved public libraries. A perfect day--at least as an alternative to sitting in classrooms all morning and afternoon, staring out windows--was a day spent in the big main center downtown, floating like a visiting princess up and down its ornate, curving stairwells, and sprawling in lazy contentment in overstuffed chairs in large, sunny, elegant reading rooms. There was just no better place to be, and even the dinky little neighborhood branches were good in a pinch. I loved especially the hushed, cathedral quiet of libraries, and the feeling of sanctuary. When I wasn't actually reading I could just sit and think and dream.

But libraries are not quiet spaces any longer, at least the branch in which I work certainly is not. Thirty-five years on, the world is different, the culture is coarser, and people are anxious, more easily frustrated and often less accommodating of one another. The addition of Internet access computers in libraries has been a mixed blessing, offering patrons who can least afford the purchase of home pcs and monthly internet fees more resources for employment, health updates and educational searches. This is a good thing.

On the other hand...