Libraries and the pressures facing our communities
In a recent Hamilton Spectator commentary, longtime library leader Wendy Newman reflects on the difficult circumstances surrounding Hamilton Public Library’s Central Library and places them within a much larger community and public-policy context.
Newman points to the intersection of homelessness, mental health, addictions and the lack of affordable housing and appropriate community supports—and the consequences when public spaces such as libraries are left to manage the impacts of these systemic challenges.
Her commentary is particularly relevant to the conversations happening across Ontario’s public library sector. Libraries are welcoming public spaces, but they cannot be expected to compensate for gaps elsewhere in our social infrastructure. The challenges appearing in library branches are often symptoms of much larger issues that require coordinated responses from governments and community partners.
Read Wendy Newman’s commentary and post:
Wendy Newman on LinkedIn
A Back to Basics Approach…
While libraries are increasingly being asked to respond to complex social needs, a recent episode of Library Land Loves offers an important reminder not to lose sight of something much more fundamental: reading.
In Reading is an Essential Service, host Michelle Arbuckle speaks with Brian Bannon, Chief Librarian of the New York Public Library, about why reading needs to remain central to the work and identity of public libraries. Their conversation explores how libraries may have unintentionally quieted their message about reading, the importance of choice and access in different formats, how people develop a “reader identity,” and the connections between reading, empathy, wellbeing and civic life.
It is an interesting counterpoint to the many conversations taking place about the expanding role of public libraries.
Libraries are community hubs, technology access points, gathering spaces, cultural institutions, partners in social services and much more. But access to books, stories, information and reading remains foundational to what we do.
Listen to Reading is an Essential Service:
Library Land Loves — Reading is an Essential Service
Food for Thought
Taken together, these two pieces capture an important tension—and opportunity—for public libraries. We need to continue talking about the very real pressures libraries are experiencing as a result of challenges in our communities and advocating for governments and other systems to take action so that the responsibility doesn’t fall heavily on our libraries. At the same time, we shouldn’t allow the expanding role of the modern public library to overshadow one of our most powerful contributions to our communities: creating readers and ensuring everyone has access to reading. Is the point of tension between these two issues that libraries have strayed too far from core mandates? Should we advocate that upstream supports allow libraries to get back to basics?