How to Get Poor People into Libraries

How to get poor people into libraries

Tuesday January 20, @10:23PM [ #223 ]
Or something like that. Libraries do too much for the middle class. Yawn. Librarians are middle class and only know that clientele. Yawn. I think it was a Gorman article that I just read on Library Link. I heard the same stuff in library school in the 1960s. Not that I'm against libraries serving everyone. But it is a type of snobbery.
Take my husband, for instance. He is married to a librarian, and for 34 years lived 3 blocks from the public library--a lovely place, filled with wonderful things, and terrific staff. He'd been there maybe 5 times. I asked him tonight (after reading the Gorman pep talk for librarians to pull the world up by its boot straps) if he had a library card. He flashed his handsome multi-color card, almost new. Mine is over 30 years old, has no picture and is cracked and bent. Why is yours so pretty, I asked. Well, he explained, if you don't use the library you have to get a new card every so often to reestablish yourself.

My adult children also never use a library--they probably don't even have cards. So before we middle class folks wring our hands asking why people who don't pay taxes or vote for bond issues aren't using the library, maybe we should ask why our neighbors or husbands or children don't.

I'll save you the research. Libraries aren't for everyone. Sounds heretical, doesn't it? Some people actually manage to live a fulfilled, useful, cultured and information filled life without ever stepping foot inside a library. Fortunately, they are rubbing shoulders everyday with library patrons who are becoming the best they can be and making the world a better place with the help of the library!

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